Dragons of Berk: How to Train Your Dragon
by DillPickle56
Summary: At 6 years old, Hiccup welcomes an adoptive brother into his family. But as the years go by, the dragon-turned-human Jack Haddock learns that in a world where it's kill or be killed, it's hard to honor the fact that dragons are his family, too. When Hiccup befriends a dragon he names Toothless, the boys may have a chance to bring peace to Berk. (Slight AU, undergoing revisions)
1. Chapter 1: Wild Child

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hey, everyone! WOW! You guys smashed my expectations in your responses to my modern AU! I was beginning to think you were put off by my long note at the beginning, but it looks like I was wrong! You taught me a lot about writing these things, even though only five of you wrote reviews (as of the time I wrote this note)! Thanks for that, by the way! This AU will not be very traditional. It probably belongs in the "supernatural" genre, but it's not centered around anything godlike. You'll find out soon enough! At the end of this chapter, I'll explain a few of the choices I made with this story, much like I did in the other one! From this point on, notes to my readers will be in their respective stories.**

* * *

 _Chapter 1: Wild Child_

 _My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. My home is a small island called Berk, twelve days north of hopeless and just a few degrees south of freezing to death. My best friend is a dragon. My brother was once a dragon. As for me, I used to be the biggest screw-up Berk has ever seen. Always in the way, never quite ready to do the one thing that has kept this island alive in the past seven generations. We fought dragons to keep our island safe. Most people would leave and find another home, but not us. We're probably the most stubborn Vikings in the Barbaric Archipelago. Quite ironically, it was the same kind of stubbornness that led us to peace with the dragons we'd been fighting for hundreds of years. You might ask me how any of this could be. It's a long story, and if you're willing to listen, I can tell you._ _Let's begin with the story of my childhood…_

* * *

At six years old, Hiccup felt that his life was the worst anyone could ever live. For starters, he could never seem to build up any muscle as fast as any other boy on Berk, his relationship with his father was strained by the loss of his mother, and he seemed to screw up everything he tried. He would lift a hammer and end up hurting himself or someone else. His father had essentially given up on making him into a Viking. On this day in particular, he sent his son to do one of the only practical things he trusted Hiccup with anymore: launder his clothes in the stream.

"You must be responsible for yourself!" he had said. "And if that means laundering your clothes more often than you need to, then so be it! I keep telling you once a month is enough for Vikings, but you just don't listen!"

That was partially true. Hiccup wasn't the best listener, but he was a quick learner, even though he wasn't very obedient to what he was taught. He thought, and often acted, independently. The only commonality he shared with his fellow Vikings was a passion for fighting dragons. He'd never actually fought one before, but he'd been inspired by his father and other adults in the tribe. He often brought his knife with him to the woods, like on this day.

As soon as he finished drying his clothes in the river, he set them on rocks to dry. He was about to sit down when an axe buried its head in the ground just a few feet in front of him. He spun in the direction it came from and yelled, "Careful, Astrid! You could have hit me!"

Astrid, a village girl with two braids of blonde hair and an unassuming lean build, was already one of the best axe throwers in the Hooligan Tribe at age six. Hiccup's scream caused her to laugh and say, "Don't do that!"

"Don't do what?" asked Hiccup.

"Don't act like I don't know what I'm doing," said Astrid. "You already know how good I am at throwing axes."

"But one day you'll learn to kill things with it," said Hiccup. "And I don't want to get killed by accident."

"How would I kill someone by accident?" asked Astrid.

"I don't know; maybe if someone walks into your axe while you throw it," said Hiccup.

Astrid yanked her axe out of the ground and said, "While you're waiting for your clothes to dry, do you want to track down some dragons with me? I heard dragons roaring earlier. If they haven't moved yet, we might get to see them."

"Why do you like dragons so much?" Hiccup wondered aloud. "They ate my mom."

"I don't think they're all evil," said Astrid. As they started walking down the trail towards where Astrid heard the dragons, she explained, "You're reading in the Great Hall all the time. Haven't you read about bees?"

"Yeah, but bees only sting people," said Hiccup. "They don't kill people."

"Some people die of bee stings because they have allergies," said Astrid. "Anyway, I read a bit about bees myself – don't tell my parents or my brother – and there's a very special bee called the queen bee. She controls all the bees in her hive. So I thought, what if there's a queen dragon?"

"That's ridiculous and believable at the same time. Have you ever talked to Fishlegs about that?"

"He says there's a dragon like that in the Dragon Manual, but it's been extinct for hundreds of years."

"I haven't even gotten that far in the manual yet," said Hiccup.

"That's because you're a slow reader," said Astrid.

"No, it's because I don't just focus on how to kill them."

Astrid stopped in her tracks and said, "Oh, so you do like dragons."

"I mean, uh..."

"Don't be ashamed of it, Hiccup," she said. "To be honest, I'm curious about them, too. That's why I wanted to track one down."

"I more want to know why they took my mom and if they're actually ruthless killers," said Hiccup.

"Come on," said Astrid, picking up the pace. "They can't be too far off now!"

It wasn't long before they came to a small clearing in the woods and took cover behind the tree line. Standing in the clearing were two smallish dragons, one with a long, narrow face and a head crown, and another with a smaller face with long ears. The first dragon was purple and had bloodshot eyes, a hunched back, and two legs. The second dragon was very slightly smaller and had jet black scales, striking blue eyes, four legs, and a long tail with two fins at the end.

"Hiccup, do you think that's a …" Astrid's voice trailed off in fear.

"Night Fury," Hiccup finished for her. "That's exactly what it must be."

"No one's ever seen one and lived to tell us," Astrid whispered.

"But we might," said Hiccup. "It's too dangerous to stay here. We have to go back to the village right now, before they see us."

The six-year-olds started to sneak away, but froze when they heard the purple dragon screech. Lightning discharged around its wings as it rose to the attack.

"It's a SKRILL!" Hiccup shouted.

Astrid swung her axe at the beast, but it used its very strong wing to block the attack. "And it's smart!" she screamed. "RUN!"

The two started to run back to the village, but the Skrill chased after them twice as fast. Suddenly, the dragon let out a screech of surprise as the Night Fury attacked it. The Skrill fought back with a lightning attack, shocking the Night Fury off its body. The Night Fury gained ground and fired a plasma bolt at the Skrill, who failed to dodge it.

"What's the Night Fury doing?" Astrid asked.

"I think it's trying to protect us," said Hiccup.

"Why, though?"

"Absolutely no idea," said Hiccup.

The Skrill used the moment of confusion to grab Hiccup by his claws and take off. Hiccup could hear Astrid screaming his name, but with the wind knocked out of him, he couldn't shout back. He felt himself being shaken out of the Skrill's grasp so suddenly, his arm was scraped by one of the Skrill's talons. He looked up and saw the Night Fury's face of … concern? The dragon landed Hiccup safely and looked down at its own paws. Hiccup's blood had stained the dragon's toes.

"Why?" asked Hiccup, even though he knew the dragon couldn't answer.

A loud thunderclap sounded and the Night Fury fell to the ground unconscious. Behind him stood the Skrill, who had just launched a furious lightning attack against the other dragon. Astrid and Hiccup, though afraid, stood their ground. They had nowhere to hide. The Skrill tried to fire once again, but nothing happened.

"Four shot limit," said Hiccup. "He used it all on the Night Fury."

The Night Fury suddenly seemed to catch on fire as it rose to the ground again, focusing all its attention on the Skrill. Mustering up all the strength he could, be fired one final blow to the Skrill's chest and collapsed again, still aflame. The Skrill, defeated, gazed at the children with a bloodthirsty expression before flying away to catch the next thunderstorm.

Amazed, Astrid yelled, "We survived that!?"

"Look at the Night Fury! He's … changing!" said Hiccup.

Indeed he was. In just a few seconds, the Night Fury had transformed into an unconscious boy identical to Hiccup in almost every way. The biggest difference between him and Hiccup was his pitch black hair, which contrasted greatly to Hiccup's auburn hair.

"Do you have your healer's bag?" Hiccup asked Astrid.

"Sure," said Astrid. She handed it to him and asked, "What do we do now?"

"Get the clothes from the rocks and bring them here as quickly as you can," said Hiccup. "He needs them."

While Astrid ran back to get Hiccup's washed clothes, Hiccup covered the boy in the blanket from Astrid's bag. After getting some water from the nearby stream, he used a small cup from the healer's kit to get some water in the boy's mouth. He stirred when Hiccup gave him a second sip.

"Hey, there," said Hiccup. "Are you the Night Fury?"

"…igh … fur…" The boy slurred, but couldn't speak yet.

"Night Fury?"

The boy's blue eyes opened and he said, "Night … Fury?"

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

"Can you talk?"

"I think so, if Norse is your language," said the boy. "I've been watching Vikings for a long time."

"So you've been watching us and learning our language?" asked Hiccup.

"Kind of," said the boy. "From a distance." He gasped. "Wait! If you can understand me, then that means…" He looked down at his hands and started to hyperventilate.

"Hey, it's okay!" said Hiccup. "Anyone who protects me is my friend. My name is Hiccup. What's your name?"

"Well, my name was Jolt," said the boy. "I think I'd like to be called Jack, though." He looked around. "Is your other friend okay?"

"She's fine. She's getting you some clothes. I wash them further down the river."

"So she's okay? She's not hurt?"

"Jack, she's fine. She wasn't hurt like you or me."

"Your arm!" Jack gasped. "Did I scrape it? Oh, I did, didn't I? I screw up everything!"

"Hey, me too!" Hiccup exclaimed. "It's okay, I can–."

"No, let me do it!" Jack insisted. He put his palm up against Hiccup's wound, closed his eyes, and said, "I know it's only a flesh wound, but please, let me make it up to you." His palm gave off a soft blue glow and when it came away, Hiccup's wound was healed. A scar took its place. Hiccup stared at it, amazed.

"How did you do it?"

Before Jack could answer, Astrid arrived. "Good, he's awake! She tossed the clothes over to Jack and said, "You'd better put these on."

"What?" Jack asked. "I don't know the first thing about putting these on!"

At that moment, Hiccup realized he would have to personally train Jack in all things according to the human world.

* * *

"You found this boy in the woods?" Stoick boomed. "Little one, you'd better have an explanation for yourself!"

Jack and Hiccup stood in the chief's house, Hiccup's father standing across from them. "I've been island hopping for a year now," said Jack. "My ship was attacked by dragons. I was the only one to escape them. I used part of my boat as a raft and landed here."

"Landed?"

"Washed up," Jack corrected himself. "It was a saying my family had. 'We've landed'. It's something we say when we … dock at an island."

"So your family was caught in a dragon attack, and only you escaped?"

"I'm small," said Jack. "I hid in the broken pieces of my boat."

"So you're an orphan now?" Stoick asked.

Jack, as if the reality of the situation was hitting him, nodded slowly and started to cry.

To distract his father, Hiccup walked over, grabbed Stoick by the arm and said, "Dad, can we talk for a second?" He pulled Stoick outside the ajar back door and said, "Dad, please! He's my friend! And he has no parents! You can't just toss him into the sea!"

"What made you think I would do that, Hiccup?" Stoick asked. "If he has nowhere to go, I'll take my chances and let him stay. But at the first sign of defiance, he goes to the prison."

"I'll take care of that!" said Hiccup. "You've told me the rules thousands of times! I can teach him how things work around here!"

"That's Gobber's job, Hiccup," said Stoick.

"How many times have things ended badly when Gobber teaches the rules? Should I remind you of when his burglary lessons when wrong?"

"Good point," said Stoick. "Alright Hiccup. I'll put you in charge of his integration. But you do realize this means I'll have to adopt him into our family, right?"

"Yes, sir," said Hiccup.

"Good lad!" Stoick said. "Now, the first thing he'll have to learn is what happens when the Flightmare appears. Aurvandil's Fire appears tonight."

"What's that?" asked Hiccup.

"Ask Gobber," said Stoick, turning to leave. "I must make preparations. Tell your brother all he needs to know."

* * *

 **I was going to continue this into the night, but I decided I should probably dedicate an entire chapter to the Flightmare attack.**

 **Okay, you guys probably have a lot of questions now. Why is Jack a part of this, and why is Astrid Hiccup's friend so early in something that is supposed to be based on the original HTTYD plot? Well, I originally wrote an entire series on adventures with Jack and the original HTTYD characters. There _was_ a crossover with another fandom, but I'm going to eliminate crossovers in these rewrites to keep them in the same archive. I'm going for huge character development in this one, so please be patient with me. Now, onto the next question. Why are Hiccup and Astrid friends at six years old, when the fandom probably believes he just has a crush on her at this point? Well, for a while now I've had this headcanon that Hiccup and Astrid were friends when they were young, but were slowly pulled apart as they got older because of training and/or social statuses (Hiccup being such a reject and Astrid being so well liked or popular). It would certainly explain why she warms up to him so quickly after the "romantic flight" scene in How to Train Your Dragon. The Hiccstrid may advance more quickly in this deviation.**

 **Also, in the modern AU I started, I forgot to factor in italics with one of the time indicators between scenes, and I was too lazy to upload an updated chapter to replace it, because that would mean replacing the entire chapter file. That's it for now! Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter! Bye now!**


	2. Chapter 2: It's Kill or Be Killed

**EDIT: So, it's been a while. I'm going through the story and rewriting stuff, partly because of a few inconsistencies with the canon series. So... yeah.**

* * *

 _Chapter 2: It's Kill or Be Killed_

 _From the Dragon Manual:_

 _Flightmare_

 _This ghostly creature emits a glow from its skin that makes it unmistakable in the night. Every ten years, Aurvandil's Fire lights up the sky and beckons the Flightmare to Berk where it raids food resources and completely destroys homes. When approached, the Flightmare's roar freezes its victims in their fear, striking at the most opportune moment. If seen, do not engage._

"That sounds like something from one of Tuffnut's ghost stories," said Hiccup, closing the book. He, Jack and Astrid had gone to the Great Hall to study the Flightmare after Stoick's warning. The Hall was mostly empty; everyone was preparing for the Flightmare's attack.

"It's crazy," said Jack. "It freezes its victims? That sounds impossible."

"Maybe it isn't," said Hiccup. "Either way, I'm staying away from it."

"My uncle isn't," said Astrid. "He wants to drive it away himself."

"Astrid, that's insane," said Jack. "I don't think this thing actually freezes people in fear. It has to be something else. I've heard that Night Furies are known to humans as the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself'. First of all, our fire isn't made of lightning. Secondly, my parents never raided a village. We lived peacefully, until those hunters showed up."

"Wait!" said Astrid. "You mean, there's more Night Furies?"

Jack turned his gaze downcast and shrugged. "I don't know anymore," he said. I haven't seen any more of my kind in at least two years." He thought for a moment. "Has anyone ever tried to drive the Flightmare away peacefully?"

"That's not how we do things here," said Hiccup. "And I do want to see the Flightmare, but I don't want to try to make friends with it and _ask_ it to go away. That would be ridiculous."

"That's why my Uncle Finn is going to fight it," said Astrid. "I'm going with him, too."

"What?" Hiccup almost yelled. "You can't do that!"

"I can, and I will," said Astrid.

"Does your Uncle Finn know about this?" asked Jack.

"He doesn't," said Astrid. "I'm going to fight that dragon with him, and you can't stop me." Before either of them could respond, she bolted out of the Great Hall.

Jack turned towards Hiccup and asked, "Is she always like this?"

"No," said Hiccup. "She's always been fascinated by dragons, and so have I, but she's never been so aggressive about fighting one."

"I just think she's crazy for wanting to fight one that's so dangerous, whether she's with her uncle or not," said Jack.

"She might be crazy, but her uncle isn't," said Hiccup. "Fearless Finn Hofferson is our champion dragon fighter."

Jack's expression grew concerned. "I've heard of this Flightmare, Hiccup," he said. "I don't think even the champion dragon fighter can stand a chance against it. It's too strong. It can even freeze other dragons."

"Is it _that_ frightening?" asked Hiccup.

"I don't know if it's fear or something else," said Jack.

Hiccup was confused. What did Jack mean by "something else"? There was no other explanation for the Flightmare's ability to freeze its victims.

What happened later that night would change everything.

* * *

Hiccup and Jack sat in a safe house in the village that night, waiting for the Flightmare's attack. They waited for the screams of the ghostly beast next to a window at the top floor. With them sat Snotlout Jorgensen, Fishlegs Ingerman and the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston. The twins were almost a full year younger than Hiccup, sported longish blond hair and wore almost identical plain tunics and gray pants. Fishlegs, who was rather large for a five year-old, wore a woolly tunic that was almost too big for him and a small helmet over his flattened yellow hair. Snotlout, the most Viking-like of them all, wore a black vest over his tunic and dark jeans to complement his black hair.

"Who's the new guy?" he rudely asked.

"Name's Jack," said Jack. He was astonished that nobody had noticed his strong resemblance to Hiccup yet. The primary difference between them was their outfits and hair, Hiccup's being auburn and Jack's being pitch dark. In contrast to Hiccup's gentle green eyes, Jack's were piercing blue. "Who are you?"

"Snotface Snotlout," said Snotlout. He examined Jack closely. "You don't look like you belong. Like Hiccup."

"What do you mean he doesn't belong?" asked Jack. "You can't say that. He's the chief's son."

"Can, and always will," said Snotlout. "He's a shame to the family."

"He's not your brother," said Jack.

"That's right; he's my cousin," said Snotlout.

Shocked, Jack turned towards Hiccup and asked, "Why didn't you mention him?"

"I don't know," said Hiccup, staring out the window. He was dead set on seeing the Flightmare.

"What's wrong, Hiccup?" asked Snotlout. "Too scared to look me in the eyes?"

Jack slapped Snotlout in the face and said, "As his adoptive brother, I say you take that back!"

"What!?" Snotlout yelped.

"That's right," said Jack. "I'm part of this now. To get to him, you have to get through me."

Before Snotlout could reply, a distant screech filled the room.

Fishlegs tore his nose out of the book he'd been reading and yelled, "Yikes! What was that?"

"That could have only been one thing," said Tuffnut.

"The Thorston bog horn, right?" asked Ruffnut.

"No," said Hiccup. "That was the Flightmare."

Everyone gathered around the window in anticipation. To the surprise of no one but the twins, the Flightmare swooped into the town square from the sky. It was scarier than Hiccup had expected. It appeared to have a thick slime dripping from its mouth and wings, and it was built similarly to a Skrill, but with four legs instead of two. Its horn, though bent nearly flat, still looked like it could pierce through any opponent. It roared again, and Hiccup could feel the vibrations in his chest. He had just enough time to get a mental picture for his journal before it ran behind a building.

"That was…" Jack couldn't think of a word to describe the dragon.

"Awesome!" Ruffnut squealed.

"Yeah!" Tuffnut agreed.

"Where's Astrid?" asked Fishlegs.

"She said she was going to fight it with her uncle Finn," said Jack. "I think she's crazy."

"Crazy about dragons, that's for sure," said Snotlout. "Won't even fight one, except now. That's so unlike her."

"I don't want to, either," said Hiccup, "but I know I'll have to someday."

A few moments later, they heard a girl's scream coming from the village where they couldn't see. It wasn't a scream of fear or physical pain; it was a scream of loss, and it soon turned to a scream of anger. Hiccup was all but certain it was Astrid's scream.

"Oh, Thor," said Fishlegs. "Do you think…"

"I don't know," said Hiccup.

Soon enough, Astrid made her way upstairs, dragging her axe behind her. Her face was sullen, devoid of the enthusiasm she'd shown when she ran from the Great Hall earlier. Tear streaks lined her cheeks.

"Astrid, are you—?"

"SHUT UP, SNOTLOUT!" Astrid threw her axe hard in Snotlout's direction, but intentionally missed him. Snotlout screamed as the axe flew past him and buried itself into a shield on the wall.

"Oh, my Odin!" Tuffnut said. "What happened?"

"Do you really want to know?" Astrid growled. "All of you?"

"I certainly do," said Jack.

Astrid sat down on a stool and started to tell them what had happened to her uncle.

* * *

 _Fearless Finn Hofferson had just gone outside with his trusty axe to fight the Flightmare on his own. Everyone ran in the opposite direction. Finn, who had always been obsessed with the Flightmare, had memorized the beast's pattern and knew its path like nobody else. He was headed towards the bridge to the docks when he noticed a soft set of footfalls behind him. He looked back and saw his niece Astrid following him, a look of pure, unbridled determination on her face. For the first time in years, a sense of dread came over him and he stopped short. He put his free hand out and said one thing he never thought he would have to say to her._

 _"No you don't, Astrid," he said sternly. His niece stopped, but she gripped her axe even tighter. He let out a chuckle. "I know you want to fight it with me, but this is not a battle for you, my dear." Her grip loosened and she turned her expression downcast. He lifted her chin to make eye contact with her and said, "Not yet, anyway." He heard the scream of the dragon and knew it was time. "Take cover; find somewhere safe, alright? Uncle Finn is going to make sure this big brute doesn't destroy Berk again." He took off to meet his foe._

 _Astrid made a move to follow him, but something stopped her. A feeling of insignificance came over her, as if he had doubted her, and maybe he was right to do so. She watched from afar as Finn met the beast._

" _Here I am, ungodly beast!" he shouted. "Fearless Finn Hofferson! I've been waiting ten years for this moment to arrive! Come and get me if you dare!"_

 _Provoked to anger, the dragon roared in his face. Finn had his axe raised, poised for a blow, but Astrid saw him stop in his tracks, staring at the dragon. It drew back one of its sharp paws to strike._

" _Don't look!" someone yelled. Astrid closed her eyes. She heard a loud, indistinguishable noise, and looked up. The dragon was destroying buildings, and her uncle was lying on the ground, a gash in his side._

 _Anger started pumping through her and she raised her axe to run, but she heard a clang and couldn't move forward. She looked up and saw Gobber the Belch, a man with a hook for a left hand and a peg for a right leg. He used his hook to restrain her axe and said, "It's going to take a lot more than a wee axe, Astrid." His expression saddened. "As for your uncle … I'm afraid it's too late."_

 _Astrid took one look at her uncle's broken body and another at the Flightmare, unleashing a loud scream for all the village to hear. She screamed until her father scooped her up and took her to a nearby house._

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup stared into the clearing in the woods where Astrid sat, trying to think of what to say to her. Steeling himself, he slowly walked forward and noticed she was sitting at the river's edge. The very same river the Flightmare always followed during its attacks on Berk. At six years old, Hiccup wasn't good with words, but he sat down next to her, trying hard to think of something to say.

Before he could, though, Astrid said, "I should have known. I should have known it was a strong beast. I can't believe how ignorant I've been."

"Astrid," Hiccup said, "what are you talking about?"

"In our world, there's always been one way," said Astrid. " _Kill_ or _be_ killed. I should have learned that much earlier on. You were right, Hiccup. They're monsters."

"What about Jack?" asked Hiccup.

"Maybe he's just different," said Astrid. "I've made a decision. I'm going to be a dragon slayer, just like my uncle."

"But we've just made friends with a dragon," said Hiccup.

"Hiccup, my uncle is dead!" Astrid snapped. "What do you _expect_ me to do? Deep down, I've always known the only way was 'kill or be killed', but I've never taken it seriously. That was a mistake. I have to start learning to fight before they hurt my family again!" Seeing Hiccup's frightened expression she softened hers and said, "I'm sorry."

"Me, too," said Hiccup.

Footsteps startled both of them and they turned to see Jack running towards the village. "I'd better go catch up with him," said Hiccup. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay," said Astrid.

Hiccup, being quicker on his feet than Jack, soon caught up and said, "Wait a minute, Jack! Slow down!"

Jack stopped by a boulder and said, "I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to become like the Vikings."

"Jack, I don't want to fight, either," said Hiccup. "But we have to. When dragons attack, it's kill or be killed, or stay hidden. That's what I've always done. Gobber wants to hire me in the blacksmith forge. Maybe he'll take you, too! We can help repair weapons instead."

"You mean it?" asked Jack.

"Sure," said Hiccup, beckoning Jack to follow him back to the village. "If we can get you into the forge to repair and make weapons, you'll get to learn about fighting, but you might not have to fight the dragons."

Jack's expression grew sad and Hiccup asked, "What's wrong?"

"I was trying to run away from this life of 'kill or be killed'," he said. "It doesn't look like I can play by my own rules. I just wanted dragons and Vikings to live in peace."

"Someday, Jack," said Hiccup. "I want that, too."

* * *

Over the years, Hiccup started to lose sight of that dream. Astrid quickly became one of Berk's most ambitious warriors-in-training. She and her father trained every day until he decided she was old enough to train by herself. Seeing Astrid's success, Jack decided to take up swordplay, and built his own swords in the forge. By the age of thirteen, he could best most of Berk's other youths in single combat. Hiccup, however, took up a different hobby. He engineered different weapons and improved existing ones. Most of his days were spent in Gobber's forge, designing weapons that had previously only existed in his dreams.

Jack soon began to take "kill or be killed" seriously and started to read the Dragon Manual in detail, rooting out every dragon's weakness. He helped defend Berk during dragon raids, and sometimes came into close contact with dragons, but never killed any. Astrid had become even more superb at her axe wielding skills, if that was even possible. Unlike his peers, Hiccup avoided violence as much as possible, which led to him being bullied by other kids his age. The worst bully was Snotlout. Jack did his best draw Snotlout's attention away from Hiccup by challenging him to duels whenever possible.

Even though Hiccup successfully integrated Jack into the Hooligan Tribe, he noticed something odd about his adoptive brother. Often times, Jack would blank out in the middle of a conversation and ask Hiccup to repeat himself when he finally snapped back to reality. Sometimes Hiccup would wake up in the middle of the night and hear Jack sneaking outside. When Hiccup finally confronted him, his excuse was that he couldn't sleep and wanted to go for a walk in the woods. On top of this, Jack refused to speak to him about his past as a dragon.

It wouldn't be until the age of fifteen that Hiccup finally understood why Jack was so secretive.


	3. Chapter 3: Not a Killer

**Hey, guys! I totally didn't know I could write directly from the FanFiction app! Although, I'll probably pick this back up in Chrome once I get home from vacation.**

 **So I had the next chapter for _Berk High School_ planned, but I left my laptop at home halfway through writing the chapter. And believe me, I was trying my best to get a remote desktop solution set up so I could write away from home, but my VPN just wouldn't cooperate. That's why that chapter and this one are delayed. I'm having a ton of fun, though. My family and I are seeing a lot of friends and relatives we haven't seen in years and we've all kind of gone to our old roots, but I'll be glad to get home and finish that _BHS_ chapter so I can fully commit to working on this project. Like I said before, the last chapter was very fun to write, and I'm glad this story is being read by you guys. It means a lot because the story as a concept is years in the making, and I finally decided to make a published fan fiction for it, which I'm glad I did. This is fun for me, and I hope it's fun for you guys, too. I'll respond to reviews in the next chapter.**

* * *

 _Chapter 3_

 _Not a Killer_

Hiccup, now 15 years old, was running through the village to get to the forge one morning during a dragon raid, taking the usual shouts from the other villagers of, "What are you doing here? Get back inside!" He was used to this by now. Whenever he was outside during dragon raids, he seemed to get in the way by complete accident, and everyone ridiculed him for it. It wasn't his fault he was clumsy.

He passed by his dad, who grabbed him by the vest and said, "HICCUP! What are you doing out? Get in the forge!" He shoved his son in that direction.

"Going!" said Hiccup.

Meanwhile, Stoick grabbed a nearby wheelbarrow and tossed it at a Nadder that was trying to steal some sheep. "What have we got?" he asked a villager.

"Gronckles, Nadders, Zipplebacks, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare." A dragon struck nearby and he held up his shield to protect himself. Stoick, on the other hand, stood his ground and took a burning ember to his shoulder pad.

"Any Night Furies?" he asked, shoving it off his shoulder.

"None so far."

"Good."

Hiccup finally reached the forge and found Jack and Gobber in the shop. "Oh, there you are!" said Gobber. "Nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off!"

Hiccup laughed. "No, me? I'm _way_ too muscular for their taste," he remarked. "They wouldn't know what to do with all this." He flexed what little muscle he had in his arms.

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?" said Gobber.

"Dragons don't need to use toothpicks since they have claws," said Jack. "Hiccup's pretty safe." Because of his frequent fencing matches with Snotlout, Jack had developed some muscles, but they weren't as big as his cousin's. He only looked slightly more muscular than Hiccup, but he was unassumingly tough. He brought a pile of broken swords to Hiccup, who had taken off his vest and replaced it with an apron. Hiccup began to heat up each sword for Gobber to fix.

Gobber was Hiccup's mentor and, despite the 35 year age gap, one of his best friends. Even before he'd apprenticed Hiccup, he was like a second father to the boy. They kept each other entertained and annoyed with lighthearted banter. Sometimes, Hiccup even forgot Gobber wasn't his uncle.

Hiccup and Jack swapped places to get more weapons in. As Hiccup took in more weapons, he noticed a few of his friends outside. Well, not all of them were "friends", exactly. Fishlegs never made fun of him, but he didn't talk to him a lot, either. Hiccup's cousin, Snotlout, always gave him a hard time, so their relationship wasn't friendly. The Thorston twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, were better friends with Snotlout than Hiccup. And then there was Astrid. She and the other teens saw more action in one morning than Hiccup did in a week. Their job was to put out fires during the dragon raids. As a Gronckle blast hit a house, Astrid and the others ran for water and put out the fire.

Hiccup watched her from the forge. Astrid hadn't talked to him in a few months, partly because she couldn't get away from Snotlout. Even though she had no interest in the boastful teen, he always flirted with her. Furthermore, Astrid had gained popularity as one of the best axe wielders on Berk, and she couldn't get much privacy during the day. Hiccup's feelings were hurt by this, and he hoped that she would talk to him soon.

Jack noticed Hiccup looked sad and said, "Hiccup, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," said Hiccup. He looked back at his bola launching machine and walked towards it.

"Not so fast," said Gobber, grabbing Hiccup's shirt with his stump tongs.

"Hey, come on!" said Hiccup. "Will you please let me out? I need to make my mark!"

"You've made plenty of those," said Gobber, turning Hiccup towards him and letting go of him. "All in the wrong places."

"Just give me two minutes, okay? I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better, and I might even get a date!"

"Hiccup, you don't understand," said Jack. "We're trying to protect you. You're just not fit to fight dragons."

"He's right," said Gobber. "You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, and you can't even throw one of these." He picked up a bola, but someone reached through the window, took it from him, and threw it at a Gronckle.

"That's the point," said Hiccup. He crouched down to his folded bola contraption and said, "This would throw it for me. Like a crossbow." He patted it down, but the machine snapped out of its compressed form, tossing the test ammunition — a wooden duck — out of the window, where it hit a passerby in the head and knocked him out.

"See?" Gobber shouted. He approached Hiccup with an angry glare and said, "This right here is what I mean!"

"Just because I have to work out the kinks, it doesn't mean—!" Hiccup was cut off by Gobber.

"Hiccup! If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all … this."

"You just pointed to _all_ of me, though," said Hiccup.

"Exactly!" said Gobber. "Stop being all of you!"

"Oh, I get it," said Hiccup, furrowing has eyebrows.

"That's it," said Gobber, nodding his head.

"You, sir, are playing a dangerous game!" said Hiccup. "Keeping this much raw Vikingness contained… There'll be consequences!"

"I'll take my chances," said Gobber. Having finished fixing a sword, he handed it to Hiccup and said, "Sword. Sharpen. Now."

Hiccup scowled and carried the sword to the sharpening wheel. As he sharpened the sword, Jack stood next to him and asked, "So, that's it. You _actually_ want to kill a dragon now, huh?"

"You know how it is, Jack," said Hiccup. "Killing a dragon is everything around here, so the only way I see to fit in is to kill one."

"I've got a feeling this has something to do with Astrid," said Jack.

"That, too," said Hiccup. "But all these dragons are difficult to take down. A Nadder is sure to get me noticed. Gronckles are tough, and taking one of those down would definitely get me a girlfriend, or at least make it okay for Astrid to hang out with me." He saw two identical dragon heads creeping over a house in the distance. "You see that Zippleback? Those have two heads, so they present twice the danger." Seeing the stairs to a catapult go up in flames from a dragon coated in orange fire, he continued, "Then the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best of us can kill one of those, especially since their habit of setting themselves on fire makes them essentially impervious."

A distant dragon scream caught them both by surprise. "And then there's that," said Jack.

"The Night Fury."

The scream became louder and louder, and a villager cried out, "Night Fury!"

"Get down!" someone shouted.

The catapult that had been lit aflame by the Nightmare exploded as it was hit with the distinctive blast from a Night Fury.

"I still don't understand," said Jack. "Night Furies normally hunt in packs. This one has never stolen food, never shown itself, and never even missed a shot. And I've never known Night Furies to attack humans."

"Maybe this one is rogue?" Hiccup suggested as he finished sharpening the sword.

"That could be," said Jack. "He certainly hasn't been acting peaceful."

"Then I'm going to stop him," said Hiccup. He put the sword on the windowsill for someone to take and collapsed his bola launcher. "Care to come with me?"

"Where's Gobber?" asked Jack.

"He went out to help with the fighting," said Hiccup. "Come on."

"Nah, someone's gotta hold down the fort," said Jack. "Give me a holler if you need any help."

Astrid was helping to put out another fire when she noticed Hiccup sprinting towards the outskirts of the village, rolling his bola launcher along with him. Her first instinct was to run and get him so he wouldn't get hurt, but she had to remind herself that her first responsibility was to the village, not to Hiccup. _I'll talk to him later,_ she told herself.

Once Hiccup reached the edge of town, he set up the bola launcher, pulling back the string. The launcher worked like a crossbow, but had a cannon-like body. As Hiccup finished, he looked up into the starry sky of daybreak and whispered, "Come on, Odin. Please give me something to shoot at."

He could hear a Night Fury roaring near him, but when he looked in the direction from which he heard it, it moved again. A longer roar directed his gaze in a new direction. He soon saw movement among the blanket of stars above him and took aim. He then heard the shriek the dragon let out while getting ready go fire. The Night Fury blasted a nearby catapult and flew between the fire and Hiccup, allowing him to see the dragon's silhouette. Hiccup fired, but he hadn't expected the weapon to recoil as much as it did. He was thrown back, and when he looked to the northeast, he saw the dragon fall just off a landmark he knew as Raven Point.

Hiccup couldn't believe it! Not only had he aimed just right; his bola trap had worked just as he had designed it to!

"Oh, I hit it!" he whispered. Unable to contain his excitement, he jumped up and down, tossing his arms into the air. "YES, I HIT IT! Did _anybody_ see that?" To his surprise and horror, a Monstrous Nightmare appeared and crushed his invention under its foot.

"Except for you," Hiccup groaned.

The Nightmare roared at him.

Hiccup screamed and started running towards the village. The Nightmare tried to spew fire at him multiple times, but he dodged left and right as he reached the plaza, which was, unluckily for him, empty.

Out of nowhere, Jack appeared in front of Hiccup and said, "Hey, big guy!" He was holding a hammer. "Eat this!" With strength only Hiccup knew he had, Jack chucked the hammer at the dragon's face. While Hiccup hid behind a tall torch post, Jack distracted the beast by making it waste its fire. Jack ended up behind the same post as Hiccup and the dragon coated the side of it in flaming kerosene gel.

"Oops," said Jack. Still hiding in the same place, Hiccup peeked around the post. Unfortunately, the dragon was doing the same from the opposite direction. "Hiccup!" Jack shouted.

Suddenly, Stoick flanked the dragon and punched it away. It reared its head around to shoot fire at him, but only a few cups of kerosene gel came out of its mouth.

"You're all out," said Stoick. He hit the dragon's head repeatedly until it flew away. When he turned to glance at his sons, the torch column crumbled and the bowl of fire above them fell to a farm below. From the chaos emerged three Nadders, each carrying two sheep.

Hiccup cringed at the sight and said, "Sorry, Dad."

"I think that was my fault, actually," said Jack. "It was shooting at me when it lit up that column."

"No, I shouldn't have gone out and attracted its attention," said Hiccup.

"That's right, son," said Stoick. His voice was stern.

"Okay, but I hit a Night Fury," said Hiccup. Stoick grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him through the plaza. "Ow! It's not like the last few times, Dad! I really _hit_ it this time! You guys were busy, and I had a very clear shot! It went down just off of Raven Point! You should get a search party out there before it—!"

Stoick let go, turned towards Hiccup, and shouted, "STOP!" Hiccup froze and a chill went down his spine. By this point, all the townspeople were gathered around them. "Just stop," Stoick continued. "Every time you step outside, disaster follows! Can you not see that I have bigger problems right now? Winter is almost here, and I have an entire _village_ to feed!"

Hiccup looked around at the villagers and back at his father. "Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?" he muttered.

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup!" Stoick boomed. He sighed. "Oh, why can't you follow the _simplest_ of orders?"

"I … I just can't stop myself," said Hiccup. "I see a dragon, and I just have to … kill it. You know? That's just … how I am, Dad! It's kill or be killed, after all."

"You are many things, Hiccup," said Stoick, his voice softer. "But I just don't believe you're a dragon killer. Now, get back to the house." He looked up. "Gobber, make sure he gets there."

"What about me?" asked Jack.

"I need you to call a town meeting at the Great Hall in ten minutes," said Stoick. "I have his mess to clean up."

Gobber smacked Hiccup upside the head and said, "That's for not staying put." The two started to walk up to the Haddock house.

As they walked past the teens in the fire brigade, Ruffnut laughed and Tuffnut said, "Quite the performance."

"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly," said Snotlout. "That helped!"

"Thank you," said Hiccup, his expression blank. "I tried."

Jack walked up to Snotlout and said, "That was _very_ uncalled for."

"What have you got to say for him?" asked Snotlout.

Jack smacked Snotlout to the ground with one swift blow to the top of his helmet. Looking up at Astrid and Fishlegs, he said, "You guys could defend Hiccup every once in a while, you know. You've never made fun of him."

Fishlegs scratched his head and said, "I don't know how to."

Jack rolled his eyes and noticed Astrid heading towards her house. He caught up to her and said, "I meant what I said back there."

"Jack, you know exactly why I can't do that," said Astrid. "I'll be ridiculed as well, and my family reputation would be ruined."

"Who cares what people think about you?" said Jack. "Hiccup is your friend. I know you hate to see him being treated unfairly. I see it in your eyes every day."

"Maybe you're right," said Astrid. "But you have to remember I'm the only Hofferson left. Maybe I'll get back with Hiccup someday, but now isn't a good time."

"What better time than now?" said Jack. "If Hiccup _did_ actually shoot down a Night Fury, it just might set his record straight. Knowing him, he's probably going to go look for the dragon as soon as he's out of Gobber's sight. You should find him and back him up."

"What about you?" asked Astrid.

"I'd go with you, but I have to go see what this town meeting in the Great Hall is about," said Jack. "I'll see you later!" He started to call the meeting.

Astrid looked up towards the Haddock house and saw Hiccup and Gobber talking. She decided to have a quick breakfast to get herself going and pass the time before going to the woods to follow Hiccup.

"I really _did_ hit one," Hiccup was saying to Gobber.

"Sure, Hiccup," Gobber said in an unbelieving voice.

Hiccup gave up trying to convince Gobber and said, "My father never listens to me, and when he does, it's always with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich." He began talking in his Stoick impression. "'Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you've brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side! You've brought me a talking fish bone!'"

Gobber nearly howled with laughter. "No, no, you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like; it's what's inside that he can't stand."

Hiccup paused for a moment. He'd never considered this before, but if it was true, he wasn't sure whether to feel better or worse. "Thank you for summing that up," he said, about to enter the house.

"Hiccup, stop trying so hard to be something you're not," said Gobber.

"I just want to be one of you guys," said Hiccup. He entered the house, closed the door behind him, and waited. When he heard Gobber walking away, he sprinted through his house to the other side and through the back door, taking off into the woods.

* * *

He surveyed the forest within a large radius from Raven Point, but could not find a trace of the dragon. He even double checked places he knew the dragon hadn't been. Eventually, he gave up the search, wandering off in frustration. "Oh, the gods hate me," he mumbled. "Some people lose a knife in the mug, but not me." Raising his voice, he yelled, "I actually managed to lose an entire _dragon!_ " He smacked a nearby tree branch, but it snapped back and hit him squarely in the face. He cried out in pain, but when he looked up, he noticed something odd about the tree. It had been knocked off the ground and its trunk pointed down what looked like a trail of dirt.

A spark of hope rekindled Hiccup's desire to find the dragon and he followed the trail of broken plants and uprooted grass. He crouched down near a ledge and gasped as he looked over. He dropped down to the bottom of a four foot drop and hid behind a boulder, readying his knife. He peeked around the boulder and stared at it.

The Night Fury was bigger than he had expected; much bigger than Jack had been before he became a human. Its magnificent wings were thrown askew by Hiccup's trap. The dragon lay motionless on the ground.

"Oh, wow," said Hiccup. "I actually did it! This fixes everything! Yes!" He put one foot on the dragon and said, "I have brought down this mighty beast!"

Suddenly, the creature growled and twitched. Frightened, Hiccup backed up against the rock again and pointed the knife at the dragon. He slowly approached it, training the knife at the dragon's chest. He steeled himself to look at the dragon's face. He could only see one of the dragon's eyes from his current angle, but it was enough. The slit of a pupil against the dragon's green iris stared back at him in what Hiccup could only describe as fear. Remembering his mother and Astrid's uncle, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm going to kill you, dragon. I'll cut out your heart and take it to my father, and I'll finally be a Viking! I AM a Viking!" Ignoring the dragon's growl, he raised the knife above his head…

…and stopped short.

Despite his desires, he couldn't muster up the intent to kill the creature. Lowering the knife to his side, he said, "They're right. I'm not a killer." He turned to leave, but his legs wouldn't carry him away. He looked back. The dragon had closed its eyes again, but this time Hiccup knew it was because it had given up trying to break free. Steeling himself once again, he crouched down to cut the ropes that bound the dragon. He had just cut the third rope when the beast roared and pounced on him.

Hyperventilating, Hiccup looked up at the dragon's eyes again. They said it all. They were narrow, like Stoick's eyes when he was angry. Hiccup tried to wiggle out of the dragon's grasp, but he was trapped. All at once, the creature stood up on its hind feet, stomped its front paws on either side of Hiccup, and roared loudly in his face, shaking the boy's body with its power. It then took off into the woods in the opposite direction.

Hiccup took up his knife, unable to believe that the dragon had just let him go. He started to walk in the direction of the village, but he was so lightheaded that he dropped the knife and fainted not ten feet away from the boulder he had just been pushed into.

* * *

 **Well, you know the old formula. Limited home time plus circumstances equals unexpected writing. So, I actually wrote most of this chapter from my phone in the FanFiction app. Pretty unbelievable, huh? Who noticed that Jack _actually_ appeared out of nowhere in this one? That's a thing that happened, right? Why did that happen? Stay tuned! Also, here's something that's bothered me every time I've watched How to Train Your Dragon: What did Hiccup mean when he said, "Keeping this much raw … Vikingness … contained, there'll be consequences!" I actually don't know what he means by that. Let me know what you think in the comments. Until then, my name is DillPickle56, and I'll see you soon! It's been fun. Don't forget to check out my other story if you haven't already.**


	4. Chapter 4: Still Friends?

**Okay, guys! Hi there! This is very badly delayed due to something I did on Labor Day weekend! Did I mention before that I don't have Netflix? Well, I'm roommates with a guy who does have Netflix, and I've been catching up on Race to the Edge! I've just crossed into Season 5 now, and it's very exciting, not just because of all the Hiccstrid, but because I love seeing the character interactions. I mean, the twins can be a bit ... unbearable sometimes, but that makes it even more interesting. So that's what I've been doing. It kind of got my writing mood going again.**

 **IMPORTANT: Maybe this is a little late, but I made a couple of changes in the last section of Chapter 2 of this story. Remember back in that chapter when Astrid admitted she "had a crush" on Hiccup? I went back and changed what she said because I felt like that was a little _too_ out of character. I mean, of course she's going to be a little out of character because this is an AU of mine, but-. You understand. You might want to read that entire last section over again before reading this because I added something in at the end. I may go back and revise in the future, but I'll always include mentions of significant changes in my Author Notes.**

 **PLEASE let me know if you want these Author Notes in the beginning or end of the chapters. Story followers, I'm looking at you guys for this. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Feedback is VERY much appreciated, even if it's just for the small things like this little concern I have about whether you actually read the notes. If you've read this far without getting into the actual chapter yet, I'm impressed.**

 **I think I'm done for now. I could drone on all day, but I don't want to bore anyone, so let's get into this!**

* * *

 _Chapter 4  
Still Friends?_

"Hiccup? Wake up, silly!"

Hiccup slipped back into consciousness confused and unable to speak. He slowly recalled everything that had happened with the Night Fury before he'd passed out. He felt patchy grass in his face and ... a hand on his shoulder? A chill went down his spine. Somebody had found him. He surely wouldn't become a Viking now if whoever this was found his secret.

"Come on, get up."

Hiccup sighed with relief when he realized who this voice belonged to. The voice was soft with a hint of concern. He smiled and glanced up at her. When she saw his face, she smiled back and said, "Hey, there you are! You almost had me worried there!"

"Astrid. It's been a while."

"It sure has," said Astrid. "Are you okay? You seem a little frightened. What happened?"

Tearing his gaze away from her, Hiccup looked around. Loose ropes from his trap were scattered a few feet away from where he sat. He didn't want to lie to her. Maybe he would lie to Snotlout, or even his father, but Astrid was different. She was his closest friend besides Jack. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Remember what I said earlier about shooting down a Night Fury?"

"Yeah," said Astrid, helping him onto his feet. "I see you actually did it! You, a total nobody, shot down a dragon no one's ever seen before! Well, except us, of course." She gestured towards the ropes and stones that made up the trap. "So, where is it?" When she tried to make eye contact with Hiccup, he stared down at the ground with a sad look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Astrid, you're not going to believe this, but I set the dragon free," said Hiccup. He swiftly turned away from her.

"You did what?" Astrid was completely confused. "Why?"

"I just couldn't bring myself to kill it," said Hiccup. "I came out here to kill it, and I couldn't even do that!"

"Hiccup..."

"I understand if you hate me, Astrid," said Hiccup. "Go back to your friends if you want. I'll never be a dragon slayer like you."

"Hiccup."

"I betrayed the entire tribe today, Astrid," said Hiccup. "I could be banished for this! If you're so bent on upholding your family reputation, you'd better leave right now."

"Hiccup, stop talking!" said Astrid. Her tone was so sharp that Hiccup thought she was about to attack him. She grabbed his arms and stared into his eyes. "Now, you listen to me! I'm not going to rat you out, I'm not going to go crawling to your jerkface cousin, and I'm certainly not going to let my social status get between us again! Got it?"

Shocked, Hiccup said, "What do you mean?"

Astrid released her grip on Hiccup's arms. In a calmer tone, she said, "Jack talked to me earlier this morning. It gets on my nerves, but he's the kind of guy who will really make you think about things, and he made me think about what I said to you back in the forge two years ago."

"You mean when you told me we had to stop hanging out," said Hiccup.

"Yeah," said Astrid. "That. That was a big mistake on my part. To be honest, I'm proud of what I've done for myself and my family reputation in the last two years, but ... I'm not proud of letting you go. You were my best friend, and ... I guess I'm just trying to say I'm sorry."

Hiccup took a close look at Astrid's face and realized her sincerity. "Yeah. Me, too. So you're not mad about me setting the dragon free?"

"I'm not mad, Hiccup," said Astrid. "And I won't tell anyone, either. Let's just make this our little secret, okay?"

"I kind of feel like Jack needs to know, too," said Hiccup. "He used to be a Night Fury, after all."

"Agreed," said Astrid. "So are we cool?"

"Yeah, we're cool," said Hiccup.

"Come on, then," said Astrid. "We've got some catching up to do."

They started walking aimlessly through the woods together. For a while, they stayed silent, neither of them knowing what to say. Soon, Astrid spoke up. "Remember when we were just little kids?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking," said Hiccup. "This reminds me so much of that."

"Yeah," said Astrid. "I can't even count the number of times we just wandered out here without a map and got lost." She paused when they came to a familiar stream. "And this is where I took out my grief on you just after my uncle died. I still feel bad for doing that."

"It's in the past, Astrid," said Hiccup.

"I know, but I just can't help how I feel about it." They continued on and Astrid asked, "So you saw the Night Fury."

"I did," said Hiccup. "I just wish I'd gotten a better look at it for my journal!"

"What did it look like?" asked Astrid.

"It was much bigger than Jack was," said Hiccup. "It had these giant black wings and piercing green eyes. And its teeth... Oh, Thor. They looked like shark teeth."

"What about its face?" asked Astrid, her curiosity peaking.

"You remember that painting of a salamander that Trader Johann brought once?" asked Hiccup. "Imagine a giant black salamander with ear flaps near its neck. Also, he had these tiny fins running down the center of his face and bigger ones down his spine. If I get another good look at him, I'll draw a picture for you."

"'Him?'" Astrid repeated.

"'It,'" said Hiccup. "I should have said 'it.'"

"How would you do that?"

"I really don't know. I'm just so fascinated by it. Well, I am now, at least. At the time, I was terrified."

"I can hardly imagine," said Astrid. "I'm glad you're still in one piece."

"Yeah, I'm honestly very shaken up," said Hiccup. "But for Jack's sake, I'm glad I didn't kill it."

"And I'm very proud of that decision," said Jack. He was standing next to a tree near them. "Hey, guys!"

"What the!?" Hiccup could hardly believe his eyes. "Jack, what are you doing out here?"

"I came looking for you two," said Jack. "I see you've made up?"

"Is that what this is about?" asked Astrid.

"No," said Jack. "I have some news. We're all being put into dragon combat training."

"What?" Astrid and Hiccup said in unison.

"What's the big deal?" asked Jack. "Is something wrong here?"

"I don't want to fight dragons, Jack!" said Hiccup.

"Neither do I!" said Astrid.

"Wait. What?" Hiccup and Jack were equally confused. "You've had it out for the dragons since your uncle's death," said Hiccup.

"That's not entirely true," said Astrid. "It's taken time, but I've decided it feels wrong. I don't want to do it."

"You both know the only way out is to be pulled out by Gobber," said Jack. "He wanted both of you in. If it's any consolation, I was picked, too. We're in the same boat."

"Who else was picked?" asked Hiccup.

"Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins," said Jack. "Good company, I know. Seriously, though, you'll be fine."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Hiccup.

"If something happens, I'll protect you," said Jack. "Besides, Gobber knows better than to give you something you can't handle."

"Well, this is just a mess," said Astrid.

"I know," said Hiccup. "I don't think any of us are getting out of this one."

* * *

Later that evening, the boys returned home to find Stoick standing at the fireplace. He glanced at them and stared for a moment. "Have you told him?" Stoick asked Jack.

"I have," said Jack.

Addressing Hiccup, Stoick said, "So what do you think, son? You finally got your wish. Dragon training. You'll start in the morning."

"Dad, I don't want to fight dragons," said Hiccup. "Not anymore!"

"Why not?" asked Stoick.

"Because I can't kill them!" said Hiccup.

Stoick shook his head. "It's time to learn," he said. He retrieved an axe from the wall and held it in front of Hiccup. "Can you tell me what this is?"

"An axe," said Hiccup.

"Not just any axe," said Stoick. "This is the axe I trained with as a boy. I slayed my first Monstrous Nightmare with this axe, and I want you to do the same." He handed Hiccup the axe. "When you carry this weapon, you will carry the rest of us with you." He posed Hiccup into a combat position. "That means you walk like us, talk like us, and think like us. No more of ... this."

Hiccup broke the pose and said, "You just gestured to all of me. This discussion is feeling very onesided, Dad."

"Do we have a deal?" asked Stoick.

"You never listen," said Hiccup.

"Deal?" Stoick repeated.

Hiccup gave in. "Deal, then." He noticed a basket strapped across his father's back. "What's the basket for?"

"I meant to tell you earlier," said Stoick. "I'm leading the fleet on one last search for the dragons' nest before the freeze. I'll be back. Probably." He started walking towards the door.

"And we'll be here," said Hiccup. "Maybe." As soon as the door shut, Hiccup put the axe next to the stairs and sat down.

"Hiccup, I know you're ... disappointed, but you and I both know there's no way out of this one," said Jack. He paused. "Also, I've been meaning to tell you something for a while now."

"And what's that?" asked Hiccup.

"Look at this." Hiccup looked up and gasped. Jack was holding his right hand out with his palm facing upwards. A purplish blue flame floated in space just within his fingers. He snuffed the flame by closing his fist. When Hiccup looked up at his brother's eyes, he saw that they were emitting a blue glow. When Jack blinked, the eyes weren't human anymore. Blue dragon eyes took their place. "I thought you'd want to know." He looked behind him and suddenly, without warning, he was sitting at the opposite side of the fireplace. He looked completely normal after this.

"How long have you known you can do these things?" asked Hiccup.

"About a year," said Jack. "I've meant to tell you, but I didn't know how to break it to you without you freaking out."

"Actually, this might explain a few things," said Hiccup. "Remember that stunt you pulled this morning with the Nightmare? You came out of literally nowhere. I've also noticed that sometimes you get things done more quickly than you should naturally be able to in the forge. And then there's the day we first met. You healed that bloody scrape I had, remember?"

"I did, didn't I?" said Jack. "I guess I just didn't think about it at the time."

"Jack, I really don't know what to think of this right now," said Hiccup. "Right now, we need to concern ourselves with dragon training."

"I don't see the point in concerning ourselves with it," said Jack. "I mean, all we have to do is be there. Who says you _have_ to fight?"

* * *

 **Well, that's the best way I could end the chapter. I'm kind of tired. I essentially rewrote this from start to finish before publishing it. If you've read the story up to now and haven't followed, please consider it because things are about to get very interesting. See you soon!**


	5. Chapter 5: Dragon Training

**Hey, everybody! If you're reading this, leave a comment and tell me how your day was.**

 **So, I was going to explain a crossover project I've been thinking about, but I don't think I'm going to. I'll mention it in my other story. Now, I realize most of my chapters lately have been mostly made up of dialogue, and I'm sorry if that makes it any less enjoyable. I'm probably going to revise later on, but I make no promises. This chapter is going to primarily focus on Hiccup and Jack, with a little bit of Astrid. There's really nothing else to say. Let's get into it!**

* * *

 _Chapter 5  
Dragon Training_

Hiccup walked slowly up to the dragon training arena, wishing he could be anywhere else. Even though he knew this was a chance to earn the respect of the village, he felt apprehensive. He didn't want to fight dragons, let alone kill one. He practically dragged Stoick's axe up the hill with him. Jack, who was walking with Hiccup, had chosen a hammer as his weapon. He noticed Hiccup's downcast expression and said, "You don't have to actually fight, you know."

"Yes, I do," said Hiccup. "I don't have a choice."

Jack turned his head towards Hiccup. "You always have a choice, bro. You chose not to kill the Night Fury. You chose to help me when I saved your life and grounded myself to this island as a human."

"Don't you ever wish you could leave this place?" Hiccup asked.

"Sometimes," said Jack. "Sometimes I wish I could take to the skies again and be free. But unfortunately, I'm not so sure I can do that."

"You mean you physically can't?"

"Exactly," said Jack. "I mean, not unless one of my powers was growing wings or something."

"Speaking of which," said Hiccup, "how do you even explain having powers? It's been on my mind since last night. How did you go from being a dragon to being a human?"

"I still don't know," said Jack. "And I don't think about it."

"Why not?" asked Hiccup.

"Because I've accepted that this is my life now," said Jack. He clutched his battle hammer. "I have so many conflicting emotions sometimes. But we're family now. Brothers. Maybe not by blood, but still brothers. That's what keeps me here."

"You just live with those emotions?"

"It's all I can do," said Jack.

They stopped at the open entrance gate. The arena had never been used for anything other than combat training. He saw claw marks and black spots on the wall, and tiny traces of dry dragon blood on the floor. It disgusted him, but he pressed on. He then registered that Gobber, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins had already arrived.

"I'm hoping for some mauling on my shoulder or lower back," said Ruffnut. "Then I'll have something to show for this."

"Yeah," said Astrid, though her voice was dull, as if she didn't really mean it. "It's only fun if you get a scar out of it."

Hiccup decided to chime into the conversation. "Yeah, no kidding, right?" he said in a sarcastic tone. The teens turned towards him and Jack. "Pain. _Love_ it."

"I'll be impressed if any of us walk away from this without a scar," said Jack.

"Hey, Jack!" said Tuffnut. "Quick question! Who let your little brother in?"

"We're practically the same age, Tuff!" said Jack. "He's not my little brother. And he's older than you, so don't you start."

Gobber raised his voice and said, "Alright, enough chit-chat! Let's get started! The recruit who does best out of all of you will win the honor of killing his or her first dragon in front of the entire village! Don't forget that little bit of excitement!"

Snotlout snickered and said, "Don't know if anybody noticed, but Hiccup already killed a Night Fury. Shouldn't that disqualify him?" The twins laughed.

"Do you want me to fight you?" Jack yelled.

"Fighting each other is against the rules!" said Gobber.

"What rules?" said Snotlout.

"My rules," said Gobber. "Now, you will cooperate with your cousins, or I'll permanently disqualify you. That goes for you, too, Jack! Everybody line up!"

Hiccup caught Astrid making brief eye contact with him before standing in a row with everyone else. He appreciated her concern, but he felt bad about not being able to voice his thoughts.

"Hey," Jack whispered into Hiccup's ear. "Gobber didn't say anything about not working together. I'll be your bodyguard if you want."

"Thanks, but no thanks," said Hiccup. "Dad was right. We have to learn. If this goes bad, you'll know what to do."

"Alright."

The boys lined up at the end of the row with Fishlegs. Gobber was pacing around a series of gates, which Hiccup knew to be dragon cages. "Behind these doors," said Gobber, "are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight. The Deadly Nadder, the Hideous Zippleback, the Monstrous Nightmare, the Terrible Terror ... Can you stop that, Fishlegs!?"

Hiccup noticed that Fishlegs had been ranting off dragon stats as Gobber named each species. As Gobber said the last dragon's name, "Gronckle," Fishlegs leaned down to Hiccup's ear and whispered, "Jaw strength eight."

"Impressive," Hiccup whispered back.

Gobber reached for a lever next to the Gronckle's cage. "Get ready!"

Snotlout lost his composure and said, "Whoa! Wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first?"

"I believe in learning on the job," said Gobber. "That's how I learned to fight!" He pulled the lever. Everyone scattered as the dragon burst out of its cage. It was flying so fast that it hit the wall after traveling across the arena. "Today, it's about survival! If you get blasted, you're out! What's the first thing you need?"

Hiccup said the first thing that came to mind when he thought about survival. "A doctor?" _Wow, that was stupid,_ he thought afterwards.

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs squealed.

"A shield!" Astrid replied.

"Yes! Go for it!" Gobber shouted. "Your most important piece of equipment is your shield. If you must make a choice between a weapon or a shield, take the shield!"

Hiccup ran for the nearest shield. He struggled to get a hold of it, but Jack came to his aid and held it steady while Hiccup secured his grip. As soon as he was sure he had a good grip on the shield and the axe, he ran. He saw that the Gronckle was focused on the twins and backed away. The twins appeared to be fighting over a shield, even though there were two other shields near them. "Typical twins," he muttered. The Gronckle blasted the shield, sending the twins into the wall.

"Tuffnut! Ruffnut! You're out!"

"What?" The twins seemed confused that Gobber had called them out.

"Those shields are good for another thing," said Gobber. "Clash your weapon against the metal on your shield and make some noise! If you're loud enough, you'll throw off the dragon's aim!"

Everyone around Hiccup started clanging their weapons against their shields. As he joined in, he noticed that the dragon looked disoriented. It couldn't hold a steady gaze. _That'll come in handy_ _,_ he thought.

"All dragons have a shot limit," said Gobber. "How many lava blasts does a Gronckle have?"

"Five?" Snotlout didn't seem confident in his answer.

"No, six!" Fishlegs stopped and raised his shield as he answered.

"Correct!" said Gobber. "Six! That's one less than all of you!" The Gronckle took advantage of Fishlegs' distraction and blasted his shield. "Fishlegs, out!" Gobber yelled. Fishlegs screamed as he ran for refuge at the arena gate. Gobber noticed Hiccup hiding behind a weapons rack. He was peeking out just as the dragon was getting ready to blast near him. "Hiccup, get back in there!"

Hiccup felt the heat of the lava blast as it hit the wall. "Ah, okay!" he yelped. "That was too close!" Thinking he would stand a better chance if he moved around, he ran out of his hiding spot. He froze in surprise when Astrid did a somersault roll in his direction.

"Snotlout, you're done!" Gobber yelled.

Hiccup realized Snotlout was running for the arena exit where Fishlegs and the twins were. Astrid stood next to Hiccup for just a moment. "Guess it's just me, you and Jack now, huh?" he said.

Without making eye contact with him, she whispered one word just loud enough for him to hear. "Duck." Without warning, she ran past him.

Hiccup looked up and screamed. He brought the shield up to his face just in time to stop a blast from the Gronckle.

"Hiccup, you're out!" said Gobber. "One shot left! Jack or Astrid?"

Instead of moving on, the Gronckle took off after Hiccup. He'd lost his grip on his shield and dropped the axe. He ran towards his shield as it rolled away, knowing it could withstand one more blast. Without looking back, he could tell the dragon was gaining on him.

"Hiccup!" Gobber started running to Hiccup, but his peg leg slowed him down.

"I'M COMING!" Jack dropped his shield and sprinted towards the dragon.

Hiccup tripped as he reached the arena wall and turned around. The dragon pinned him down and opened its mouth. Hiccup's life flashed before his eyes and he squeezed them shut. He braced himself for the blast ... but it never came. Instead, he heard a combination of Jack screaming and the Gronckle grunting. He opened his eyes. Jack had swung his hammer at the Gronckle's mouth, which turned the dragon's attention away from Hiccup. As Jack led the dragon away, he picked up Hiccup's shield and blocked the last Gronckle blast with it.

"Jack's down!" Gobber called. "Astrid wins!"

While the others were distracted by Gobber wrestling the dragon back into the cage, Hiccup observed Astrid. As soon as she looked at him, he mouthed a silent, "Thank you." She winked at him in response. He turned his attention to Jack, who helped him back onto his feet. "Thanks," he panted. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," said Jack. He took a long drink from his water canteen. "I haven't run that fast since ... well, ever." Hiccup looked at the others and saw that they weren't any better off. Everyone was breathing heavily from the sudden exertion of energy.

"You'll get another chance; don't you worry," said Gobber, having secured the dragon into its cage. "Remember, a dragon will always, _always_ go for the kill."

* * *

"I just don't understand," said Hiccup. "If the dragons always go for the kill, then why did the Gronckle just hit our shields?" He and Jack were walking through the forest near where Hiccup had freed the Night Fury.

"I don't know," said Jack. "I mean, she _did_ almost kill you."

"'She?'" Hiccup gave his brother a puzzled stare.

"The dragon," said Jack. "That was a female dragon. And she almost killed you."

"That's true," said Hiccup. Then he thought of something. "Do you think she wanted to disarm me before killing me?"

"Perhaps," said Jack. "Gronckles are smarter than you might think. Everyone else just ran for cover after being blasted, except you."

"So, why didn't the Night Fury kill me when he had the chance?"

Jack shrugged. "Maybe he spared you out of gratitude," he said.

"Maybe," said Hiccup. "I'm just having trouble making sense of it all."

Jack abruptly stopped and shushed Hiccup. Grabbing his brother by the shoulder, he said, "Do you hear that?"

"Um, our footsteps? The birds? Silence?" Hiccup was confused. He'd never seen Jack act like this.

"No," Jack said in a hushed voice. "I heard the sound of a dragon in distress."

"You must have excellent hearing," said Hiccup, "because I have no clue what you're talking about."

"It was coming from over there!" Jack pointed over a pile of large boulders. He took notice of a trench leading underneath the rocks and jumped into it. "Come on; it's not even that deep!"

Hiccup noticed something about Jack's eyes. "Hey, Jack? Why are your irises glowing?"

"I don't know," said Jack. "Hopefully, they stop by the time we get back. Get down here!"

Hiccup jumped down and followed Jack down through the trench. It opened up and beneath them was what looked like a crater. Much of it consisted of a pond, but almost the entire perimeter was made up of grass and rock formations. "Weird," said Hiccup. "I've been to this cove before, but I haven't come down here in a long time."

"I hear it again," said Jack. He looked up at Hiccup, his eyes still glowing. "Crouch." Hiccup did so and Jack lowered himself onto a rock that gave him a better view of the cove. Stretching out onto his belly, he motioned for Hiccup to follow him. Hiccup copied Jack's posture as he reached his brother.

"What are we doing again?" he whispered.

"Shh." Jack pointed into the cove. Hiccup followed Jack's gaze and gasped.

The Night Fury was standing near the rock wall of the cove, as if getting ready to fly over it. It spread its magnificent wings and tried to fly out, but something held it back and it hit the ground again. It repeated this process several times and flew low around the cove to try to gain momentum, but it failed each time.

Hiccup quickly took out his journal and sketched the Night Fury. He got as many details as he could onto the two pages available to him, right down to the fins at the end of the dragon's tail.

"Why won't it just fly away?" he wondered in a quiet whisper.

"Because he's grounded," said Jack. "And that's not a joke. Look at his tail."

Hiccup took a closer look at the dragon. When he saw what Jack was talking about, he rubbed the left tail fin off the drawing. The dragon's left tail fin was missing. Nothing was left of it. Hiccup was about to ask how that could have happened, but suddenly, he realized. _I did this_ _,_ he thought to himself. The dragon crashed into the shore of the lake and gave up. He looked into the water and tried to catch a couple of fish, but without the speed of flight, he couldn't snap his jaws around any fish. Hiccup sighed with guilt. His grip loosened on the pencil he was using and he accidentally dropped it to the rocks below. When it hit, the sound was loud enough for Hiccup to hear. Panicking, he snapped his eyes on the Night Fury again.

The dragon stared back, as if realizing for the first time that Hiccup was there. The Night Fury let out a low purr, as if recognizing him.

All at once, Jack's eyes stopped glowing and he gasped. "Um, Hiccup, I have to go," he said.

"What?" asked Hiccup. "We just got here."

"No, you can stay and watch if you want," said Jack. "I have to go now! You don't understand; I'll explain later!" His entire body burst into blue flames and then he was gone. Hiccup heard his brother's voice coming from the other end of the trench. "See you at the Great Hall tonight! If you want to attend Gobber's post-training class discussion, that is!"

"Okay," Hiccup replied. He looked at the dragon again, asking himself, _What have I done?_

* * *

Jack continued to run towards the village as fast as he could, not even bothering to teleport any further. Sure, he'd used that power to get himself out of the cove quickly, but he didn't know the limits to that power, so he decided not to use it again. He settled for sprinting as far as he could away from the cove without stopping.

 _It's impossible,_ he thought. _How can this be? I thought he was dead!_ He was so absorbed in his thoughts that when an axe barely missed his face, he screamed and stretched out his hand, firing a Night Fury blast in the direction the weapon was thrown from. Astrid jumped out of the way, screaming just as loudly. The blast hit the ground just a few feet away.

"What was that!?" Astrid shouted. "You almost shot me!"

"I'm sorry!" said Jack. "I thought you were attacking me! I didn't realize who you were until after I fired!"

"Apology accepted," said Astrid. "Now, you mind telling me what's going on here?" Her angry tone left no room for debate.

"I'll tell you straight up," said Jack. "I have powers. I can move from one place to another in a snap. I can shoot Night Fury fire. I can shoot blue fire. My eyes can glow. I can understand dragon languages. What else is new?"

"Hold up a second," said Astrid, pulling her axe out of a tree trunk. "You're telling me that you were born a dragon, and you can do all these things dragons can?"

"Except teleport," said Jack. "Dragons can't teleport."

"What's teleporting?" asked Astrid.

"I call it teleportation," said Jack. "Basically, I can be in one place one second, and in the next I can be another place entirely. I just can't do it over long distances. If I tried to teleport to the village from here, I wouldn't make it."

"So you settled for running, almost right into my axe," said Astrid. "What were you running from?"

"You wouldn't understand," said Jack.

"Maybe I would if you explained it to me," said Astrid.

Jack groaned. "Alright. But don't tell Hiccup about this. This'll be _our_ little secret, okay?"

"Got it," said Astrid.

Taking a deep breath, Jack braced himself. "Astrid, the Night Fury that Hiccup shot down can't fly anymore. We just saw it. Hiccup clipped his tail fin with his bola trap. And that's not all. That Night Fury is my brother. My _biological_ brother."

Shock was almost palpable on all of Astrid's features. "Your brother?"

"There's more," said Jack. "I thought he was dead. I left my island because it was attacked by another dragon species, and I thought my brother was killed in the firestorm."

"What are you going to do?" asked Astrid. "Jack, you have to tell Hiccup about this."

"I can't," said Jack. "I've been waiting almost ten years for proof that dragons and Vikings can live in peace. I'm not about to use my powers to force it to happen. I need to let Hiccup figure this out on his own. That's what I'll tell him."

"Okay," said Astrid. "I just hope you know what you're doing."

"Me, too," said Jack. He paused for a moment. "Hey, uh, congratulations on the win today. You must be very proud."

"I am," said Astrid. "But don't forget what I said about not wanting to kill dragons. I still feel like this is wrong."

"Hiccup and I feel the same way, Astrid," said Jack. "The only reason I attacked the Gronckle was because she was going to kill Hiccup. I'm surprised Gobber didn't disqualify me, because it's technically against the rules to attack the dragons during defense exercises."

"You were protecting Hiccup," said Astrid. "You made the right choice. Speaking of whom, is he okay?"

"He's fine," said Jack. "I'm the one who's shaken up right now. You might want to talk to him tonight, just in case there's something he's not telling me. I know he likes talking to you."

"More than he likes talking to you?" Astrid inquired.

"Maybe so," said Jack. "After all, he doesn't get to talk to you nearly as often."

"That's true," said Astrid.

Jack looked up at the sky. Rain clouds were approaching rapidly. "Time to go home," said Jack.

"What about Hiccup?" asked Astrid. "He's still out there."

Jack smiled. "He's not stupid. He'll be back before the storm gets here. Anyway, we have to get back to the village for Gobber's meeting."

"Alright," said Astrid. She took one last glance into the forest before following Jack back to the village.

* * *

 **Well, that actually went better than I expected. Again, there's a lot of dialogue, but that's almost to be expected from an adaptation of a movie at this point. Let me know what you thought by leaving a review, and hit the follow button to stay posted for the next chapter! See you soon!**


	6. Chapter 6: Books and Lighting Stones

**Hi, guys! It's been a while, hasn't it? I'd like you to know that I'm all caught up on Race to the Edge. That's a thing that happened while I was gone. I actually got a Netflix account since the last time I put a chapter up. I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but if you guys like this story or these chapters, do not forget to leave reviews. I take guest comments. I don't even think you need an account to post comments, so please do.**

 **I decided last-minute to focus this chapter on Astrid's perspective. I don't normally dedicate entire chapters to specific character perspectives (and, of course, I always stick with third person point of view, no matter the character focus), but I felt like it was important to bring Astrid's perspective into the mix. A while back, I rewatched the movie, and I noticed, for the first time, clues in the movie itself that hint at something I've actually suspected for a while. Even before the "Romantic Flight" scene, Astrid seems to have some kind of an interest in Hiccup. Off the top of my head, the first clue was in was this scene, where Gobber is talking to the teens in the Great Hall. When Hiccup walks in, Astrid sees him, stares at him for a moment, and seems to forcibly take her eyes off him by looking across the table. As he walks to his own table, her gaze follows him until he sits down, and she turns her head away, making sure nobody saw (I actually had to look at the movie again to see if I was remembering this correctly). And remember the scene where Gobber tells the story of how dragons took his arm and leg? When Astrid notices Hiccup left early, she's about to follow him, but something stops her. The only thing I can possibly think of is that she feels embarrassed for wanting to talk to him and doesn't want to be ridiculed for trying to be his friend. It's only when he gets good at handling dragons in the ring that she starts to get mad at him and almost resent him, to a degree. Anyway, that's just a clue that she might have had feelings for him before the plot started, and it's kind of where my headcanon of, "Hiccup and Astrid were friends before the movie" comes from. I'm going to try to tap into that just a little bit, but I don't know how it'll go.**

 **I also want to point out that I am aware that Astrid has parents in RTTE, but while I was writing this story originally, I made her an orphan for reasons I won't try to explain, other than her parents were never mentioned in _Riders of Berk_ or _How to Train Your Dragon_. So just forgive me on that, okay? I made a boo-boo, but I'm going to keep going.**

 **It's actually been so long since I last wrote a chapter for** ** _Dragons of Berk_** **that I almost forgot where I was going with the plot. That's when you know it's been too long. Anyway, here we go.**

* * *

 _Chapter 6  
Books and Lighting Stones  
_

The Great Hall was quiet, except for the occasional roll of thunder. As Jack had predicted, a storm had come. Astrid waited with the rest of Gobber's students for Hiccup to show up. Well, the rest of the students, save Jack, were not waiting for him at all. They were enjoying the post-training discussion. She, on the other hand, was worried that Hiccup had gotten caught in the storm. It wasn't until Jack said her name that she was snapped back to reality.

"Astrid?"

She looked up and saw Jack looking at her. "Isn't that right?" he said.

"What?"

"Snotlout's strategy was the worst, isn't that right?" said Jack.

"What did he do, exactly?" asked Astrid.

"Hey, shut up, Jack," said Snotlout. "I was inviting her to work out with me in my parents' basement! That had nothing to do with my strategy."

"It seemed like a strategy," said Jack. "Strategies can make good or bad things happen in battle, and, in this case, yours was your downfall!"

"Did he really invite me?" asked Astrid. "I wasn't paying attention."

"I mean, you ignore him when he's flirting at you, anyway, so I'd expect nothing less," said Jack.

Tuffnut laughed. "Yeah, she's a stone-cold killer, unlike my sister, who loves flowers on her shield!"

"Hey!" Ruffnut yelled. "That's not true! That shield had two skulls on it with fire behind them!"

"Is that really what they were?" asked Tuffnut. "They looked like skull flowers to me."

"Alright, let's face it," said Gobber. "You two fought over that shield. That's the only part where you went wrong. How about Fishlegs?"

"I got distracted after I answered the question about the shot limit," said Fishlegs. "That dragon would have burned me alive if I wasn't holding that shield."

"Jack?"

"I attacked the dragon," said Jack. "Maybe I should have made noise instead, just to distract it."

"You gotta admit that was an impressive rescue, though!" said Tuffnut. "Hiccup was gonna get cooked, and you dove in, smacked that dragon, and took the hit with his shield! I wouldn't have done it any differently!" He paused. "Except maybe I wouldn't have done it at all. I'd love to see what Ruffnut looks like with lava on her face." Ruffnut punched him in the ribs. "OUCH!"

Astrid rolled her eyes. She heard the door to the Great Hall open, but she didn't look to see who had walked in because her name was called. "Astrid," said Gobber, "where did you go wrong in the ring today?"

"After I crossed paths with Hiccup, I mistimed my somersault dive," she said quickly. "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

"Yeah, we noticed," said Ruffnut.

"No, you were great!" said Snotlout. "That was so 'Astrid.'"

"Well, she's right," said Gobber. "You do have to sharpen your skills." He glanced to the side. "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"

Astrid followed Gobber's gaze. Hiccup was walking towards the table, soaking wet. _Oh, no,_ she thought. _He must have gotten caught in the storm._ After unknowingly staring at him for a brief moment, she glared at Jack, who shrugged.

"Uh, he showed up," said Ruffnut.

"He didn't get eaten," Tuffnut added.

"He didn't fight back," said Snotlout. "And speaking of fighting, isn't it against the rules to attack the dragons during defense exercises, Jack?"

"Shut up, Snotlout!" said Astrid. "Hiccup is never where he should be." While she spoke, she watched Hiccup as he took a cup from Jack and sat at a separate table. "Jack saw that his brother was in danger and took action when no one else would. We are supposed to be a team! We protect each other! All of us protect each other, and like it or not, that includes Hiccup." Hiccup looked up from his plate and a faint smile crossed his face. Astrid took this as a silent "thank you" and smiled back.

"Well said," said Gobber. "Thank you, Astrid." Without warning, he slapped the twins in the back. "Your behavior towards Hiccup today was unacceptable, lousyheads! If you're all going to be a team someday, you might as well start acting like one now! You'll start by living and breathing this stuff!" He took a rather large book out from under his belt and placed it on the table. "This is the Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of is in this book. Strengths, weaknesses, abilities, attack types, everything! I'd bet my remaining foot this is where Fishlegs got all his knowledge he boasted in the ring today."

Astrid heard Snotlout say something along the lines of "nerd" under his breath.

Thunder rolled outside. Gobber grunted and said, "With a storm like this, there won't be any attacks tonight. Study up." He stood up to leave.

Tuffnut, who had been trying to balance his knife on the table, flinched. "Wait! You mean we have to read?"

"Seriously? I'd rather be dead than read while I'm still alive!" said Ruffnut.

"Yeah!" said Snotlout. "Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?"

"So you know _how_ to kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about," said Jack. "There's more to fighting a Monstrous Nightmare than waving a bludgeon in its face, Snotlout."

"You would know, wouldn't you?!" said Snotlout. "Just yesterday morning, you fought one!"

"Yeah, I fought it, but I didn't kill it," said Jack. "There's a big difference. I couldn't kill it because I didn't know how. But maybe if I had read the book..." He clicked his tongue. "Even so, my dad would have arrived and driven it away. He was just as alert to the Nightmare being there as I was."

Astrid did her best to ignore them, and eventually Snotlout stood up and said, "You guys read, and I'll go kill it."

"Good luck getting yourself eaten!" said Astrid. While everyone else left, she intentionally stayed where she was until the door closed. She looked around and saw that the Great Hall was deserted. The only one left, besides her, was Hiccup. Everyone else had gone. Astrid had half expected Fishlegs to stay and study, but it seemed he wanted to boast his knowledge to the other teens.

She and Hiccup stared at each other for a moment. Before the silence became too awkward, Astrid asked, "So, how was your day?"

"Other than almost being killed by a Gronckle, I guess it was fine," said Hiccup.

"And being caught in the rain," she added. "Look at you! You're soaked. Come on, let's sit by the fire."

Hiccup looked surprised when Astrid said this, but he nodded and carried his plate over to the fire pit and sat down in front of it to warm himself up. Astrid sat next to him. She didn't want to keep him from eating, so she was silent for a few minutes while he finished his dinner. When he was almost finished she decided to speak up. "So, I ran into Jack in the woods today," she said.

"Yeah?" Hiccup didn't seem interested in conversation at the moment.

Astrid knew Hiccup well enough to know that his current behavior meant something was bothering him. "Okay, Hiccup. Spill it. What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" He perked up as if he had been caught falling asleep in the forge. "Nothing at all. What's up with you?"

Hiccup's topic avoidance technique began to irritate Astrid. "Hiccup, you know I hate when you're dishonest with me," said Astrid. "What did the Night Fury look like?"

Hiccup jerked his head towards Astrid. "What did you say?" He looked around to see if anyone else was in the Great Hall, but it was completely deserted. Even so, he whispered, "Keep your voice down. If anyone finds out..."

"No one is going to find out," said Astrid. "On the way over here, Jack told me you got a drawing of the Night Fury. Can I see it?"

Hiccup was slightly relieved she had heard about the dragon from Jack. "Well, here it is," he said, pulling his notebook out and turning it to the page with the drawing.

Astrid studied the drawing and remembered what Jack had looked like as a Night Fury. "Hmm... I wonder how old this dragon is," she said. "Those wings look rather large. Remember what Jack looked like?"

"Yeah," said Hiccup. "But keep in mind, this dragon is much larger than Jack was. He's definitely older than Jack was as a dragon."

"Do you think this is what Jack would look like now?"

"I guess so," said Hiccup. "I don't know for sure. We don't know enough about the Night Fury to determine exactly how old it is."

"Maybe the Dragon Manual can help us," said Astrid. She turned towards the table the book was on.

"I don't know, Astrid. As far as I know, nobody's seen a Night Fury and lived to see another day."

"Nobody besides us, of course."

Hiccup paused to think. "Then again, we haven't read the Dragon Manual. At least I haven't."

Astrid laughed. "What? I'm confused. You're the kind of person I'd expect to actually read this kind of stuff."

"Yeah, but I'm not exactly dragon fighting material," said Hiccup. "When I'm not wandering in the woods with Jack, I spend most of my time in the forge."

Having finished dinner, Hiccup took his plate and walked over to the table on which sat the Dragon Manual. There were two unlit candles on the table, and the fire pit was dimming because the fire hadn't been tended to in a while.

"Astrid, do you have your lighting stones?" he asked.

Astrid smiled when she heard this. She opened a pouch on the belt of her skirt and took two rocks from it. Rubbing them together, she lit the two candles so there was sufficient reading light.

"Thank you," said Hiccup.

"You're welcome," said Astrid. She sat down beside Hiccup as he set his dish aside and opened the book.

On the first page, there was a list of dragon classifications. "Let's see," Hiccup mumbled. "Strike Class, Stoker Class, Boulder Class, Fear Class, Sharp Class, Tidal Class, Mystery Class."

"Just how many classes are there?" Astrid wondered.

"Well, seven, I guess," said Hiccup. "That is a lot, actually. I would have expected five." He turned the page.

To both of their surprise, the next page was all about the Thunderdrum, a Tidal Class dragon.

"Hold on a minute!" said Astrid. "I thought Strike Class would be first."

"So did I," said Hiccup. He quickly read the summary. "'This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous; kill on sight.'"

"Anything about fighting it?" asked Astrid.

Hiccup skimmed both Thunderdrum pages. "No," he said. "Nothing about how to fight it, as far as I can tell. We never get Thunderdrums, anyway." He turned the page again. "'Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full-grown trees. Extremely dangerous; kill on sight.'"

Astrid remained perplexed. "Who organized this book?"

"I don't know," said Hiccup. "I guess Bork the Bold did? If that's true, then he wrote okay, but organization definitely wasn't his strong suit." He turned to the next page. "'Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victim. Extremely dangerous-.'"

He was cut off by a sudden thunderclap that shook the hall and resonated for a second. Startled, he let out a scream.

"Whoa! That was loud," said Astrid.

"What? The thunder, or my scream?" asked Hiccup.

Astrid grinned. "Well, you didn't scream very loudly, but the thunder was really loud."

"Good," said Hiccup. He turned back towards the book and turned the page again.

"Although, hearing you scream kind of made me jump a bit," said Astrid.

Hiccup shook his head and read the page. "'Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight.'"

"Okay, this order doesn't make any sense to me," said Astrid. "They're not alphabetized, and there's no actual class organization."

Hiccup groaned. "You know what?" he said. "I'll just skim through this until I find what I'm looking for." He skipped through a few pages, reading off some of the species as he went. "Gronckle, Zippleback, The Skrill, Boneknapper, Whispering Death..."

Astrid followed along, occasionally catching some information about the dragon listed. Every page contained illustrations of Vikings killing the dragons, or the dragons killing the Vikings. Seeing all the death and destruction, she realized just how black and white the situation was to the Vikings. The dragons were the enemy, and there was no middle ground. On no page was there any dragon that was considered peaceful. When Hiccup turned to an almost completely blank page, she brought herself back to reality and leaned closer to read it.

"'Night Fury,'" Hiccup whispered.

"'Speed unknown,'" Astrid chimed in. "'Size unknown.'"

"'The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon.'"

"'Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not _find you_.'"

The teens exchanged glances of resignation. There was nothing left to find.

"Nothing there, right?"

Hiccup and Astrid cried out in surprise and saw Jack behind them. "Jack!" Astrid shouted.

"Okay," he yelped, throwing his hands up. "I'm sorry I scared you!" Lowering his hands, he continued, "I'm sorry, Hiccup. I should have told you before; I've read that entry already. The Dragon Manual doesn't have anything about Night Furies."

Hiccup frowned, disappointed. He placed his notebook over the blank space on the page and imagined a magnificent drawing of the Night Fury in its place, while all he had in reality was a bird's-eye view of the top of the dragon.

"Look on the bright side!" said Jack. "You've got a drawing of one, which is more than we can say for anyone else!"

"Yeah, but ... besides that, there's nothing," said Hiccup.

Jack shook his head. "You'll figure something out, Hiccup. In the meantime, it's pouring outside, and it's freezing cold. I don't think it's a good idea to walk home."

"What should we do, then?" asked Astrid.

"I think I can teleport you guys with me, but it might exhaust me to do it," said Jack. "I can take us to your house, then Hiccup and I can go home."

"Okay," said Hiccup. He slid his notebook back into his vest pocket and closed the Dragon Manual. He and Astrid stood up while Jack snuffed the candles with his fingers. Taking both teens by the shoulder, Jack took a deep breath and closed his glowing eyes tightly.

"Here we go..." he whispered.

All at once, Astrid found herself surrounded by blue flames for a split second and crashed on her living room floor. "Ouch!" She sat up and saw Hiccup and Jack in a similar predicament. Jack's eyes were no longer glowing, but Astrid could see smoke coming from his hair.

"That was too much," he grunted. "Your house is kind of far away from the Great Hall, and I was carrying both of you with me. I don't think I can get us back to the house, Hiccup."

"Are you okay?" asked Hiccup, helping Jack back onto his feet.

"I'm fine, but I can't teleport anymore," he said. "Not for another few hours, at least."

Astrid piped up. "You guys can spend the night down here if you don't make a mess. Just make sure nobody sees you when you leave."

"Thanks, Astrid," said Hiccup. "Again."

"No problem, Hiccup. This is what friends are for, right?"

Hiccup chuckled.

"Well, I'm headed to bed," said Astrid. "Goodnight, guys."

"Goodnight, Astrid," Jack and Hiccup said in unison.

"Sleep well," said Astrid.

Hiccup watched Astrid walk upstairs while Jack stoked the fire in her fireplace. When she was gone, he sat down on her sofa and looked around. Weapons of past Hoffersons lined the walls, including the axe with which Fearless Finn Hofferson had tried to kill the Flightmare. The skull of a Nadder hung from the wall, a trophy of Astrid's mother's.

"It saddens me to see this is the way we live," said Jack.

"What if we could change it?" asked Hiccup.

Jack, who was still crouched on the floor near the fire, looked up at his brother and said, "What's that?"

Hiccup shook his head. "Never mind."

Jack returned to stoking the fire and, without looking up, said, "I know you want to get closer to that dragon, Hiccup."

"Can you help me do it?" asked Hiccup.

"No," said Jack. "I'm sorry, but I can't use my powers to interfere. I've waited so long to find out whether peace between dragons and humans is possible. You'll have to face him on your own. Besides, there's a chance that if I do end up using my powers, he'll recognize me and think I'm a traitor."

"And then our chances will be ruined," said Hiccup. "Okay, Jack. I'll figure something out."

Jack soon settled down in a chair and Hiccup dozed off on the couch.

Meanwhile, Astrid sat in bed, fiddling with the lighting stones. She had a fond memory of when Hiccup had given them to her.

* * *

 _She had just turned thirteen years old, and Gobber had decided she was old enough to live on her own. She felt that it was a bit early to go back to living in her own house, and definitely too soon to be providing for herself, but she was willing to take on the challenge. She would spend a few more nights in the forge before moving back. She knew Hiccup would miss having her around; she could tell he liked her, but she never dared to say anything to him about it. She had to keep up her Hofferson reputation._

 _As she walked into the forge, she noticed all the windows were shut. But of course, they were. The forge was closed at this time of day, and there were no dragons to be seen anywhere. To her surprise, Hiccup was in the forge, but he didn't seem to be working._

 _"Hi, Astrid," said Hiccup._

 _"Hey, Hiccup," Astrid replied._

 _"How was your birthday?" he asked._

 _"Oh, the usual," she said. "Snotlout wanted to hang out with me all day, but I managed to lose him. Don't ask me how."_

 _"You didn't toss him down the well with a rope attached to his foot again, did you?"_

 _Astrid chuckled. She had, indeed, tossed Snotlout down the well in the past, but only as a result of a dare that he had refused to take. "Close," she said. "I tied him to a tree. Then he said something crazy about getting out of the rope himself to prove he's worthy of my love, whatever that means!" She noticed Hiccup frowning at this, but she also noticed his right hand had been behind his back the entire time. "What's that?" she asked._

 _"What's what?" He was grinning._

 _"What are you hiding?"_

 _"Okay," he said, giving in. "I have something for you." He extended his hand towards her and held out two rocks. "One of these is flint, and the other is steel. It took me a few hours to find a good piece of flint. They're called lighting stones on Berk. If you rub them together the right way, you can light fires." He handed her the stones._

 _Astrid took them and rubbed them together, gently at first. Nothing happened._

 _"A little harder," said Hiccup. "Give it some elbow grease."_

 _Astrid applied force to the flint with the steel and gave it a hard rub. Sparks flew, almost hitting Hiccup in the face. He jumped backwards and knocked over a barrel of spears. He cried out as he fell on the ground next to the mess._

 _"Oh, gods!" Astrid put the stones down on the table and helped him up. "Are you okay?"_

 _"I'm fine," said Hiccup. "Are you good?"_

 _"If you're okay, I'm okay," said Astrid. She helped him stand back up and took the pieces again. "These are great, but what would I use them for?"_

 _"Well, I intended them to be an emergency kit," said Hiccup. "Say you got lost in the woods and had to start a fire so someone would come get you."_

 _"A Hofferson never screams for help," said Astrid._

 _"A Hofferson is always willing to accept help, though, right?" asked Hiccup. "And what if you were injured? The smoke would attract attention. Help will come, even if I have to go get you myself."_

 _Astrid stared at him._

 _"You could also set campfires, and-."_

 _Astrid cut off Hiccup's monologue by putting a finger on his lips. "Hiccup, I can honestly say this is the best thing anyone's given me today. Thank you!" She promptly hugged him and he wrapped his arms around her in return. When she pulled back, Hiccup smiled at her._

 _"Happy Birthday, Astrid," he said._

 _"Thank you, Hiccup." She couldn't resist the urge to kiss him on the cheek quickly. Hiccup blushed. Deciding it was enough, she said, "How about we clean up this mess together?"_

 _"Sounds good!" said Hiccup, his face returning to something close to its normal color._

 _When they had finished cleaning up the mess, Astrid yawned and said, "I'm going to bed now. Goodnight." She made for the stairs._

 _"Goodnight, Astrid," she heard him say. "See you tomorrow!"_

* * *

Astrid drowsily smiled at the memory and put the lighting stones on her bedside table before letting herself fall asleep.

* * *

 **To be clear, I came up with that flashback scene pretty much on the spot. I felt like there wasn't enough in the chapter, so I decided, why not add something _else_ that also wasn't in the movie? And with that, I got a little bit of younger Hiccstrid in there, if it can even be called that. I was more proud of the flashback scene than anything else in this chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Please let me know in the reviews how well I'm doing with this story, and I'll see you soon!**

 **PS! Let me know if you guys would like me to make an Undertale/How to Train Your Dragon crossover! It would follow the Undertale Pacifist Route plot, and feature Hiccup and Astrid, perhaps even Jack (without powers). I'll ask this question on my _Berk High School_ story, too. I don't know if I'll ever finish this crossover, but I'd like to get started. First, however, I want to know what you guys think, so PM me if you think it's a cool idea. Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7: A Toothless Dragon

**Hey, guys! Sorry for the long delay, but I'm back! It's been too long. I'll try to make the wait worth it.**

* * *

 _Chapter 7  
A Toothless Dragon_

When Hiccup and Jack arrived in the arena the next morning, they were surprised to find that it had been transformed into a maze. Wooden walls had been erected all over the training grounds. When they walked inside, the gate suddenly slammed shut behind them.

"There you boys are!" Gobber's voice rang out from above. "You're just in time!" He started making his way around the arena, towards the dragon cages. "Once I give the word, you may move. Today, it's all about attack!"

"Exactly what you should have been punished for yesterday, Jack!" Snotlout shouted from somewhere in the maze.

 _Shut up,_ Hiccup thought.

"Give it a rest, Snotlout!" Jack shot back. "Which dragon is it today, Gobber?"

The blacksmith grinned. "You shall face the Deadly Nadder. It's quick and light on its feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter!" He pulled the lever, unlatching the Nadder's cage. "You can move now!"

Hiccup and Jack sprinted in opposite directions, left and right respectively. While Jack aimed to meet up with one of the other teens (he hoped not to run into Snotlout), Hiccup was trying to reach Gobber. Once he was in view, he called out to his mentor.

"Hey, Gobber, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night Furies," he said. "Is there another book?"

"Nope!" said Gobber.

"No sequel?" Hiccup continued. "No Night Fury pamphlet in ‒."

He was cut off by a fire blast hitting the head of his axe. Startled, he looked around and saw the Nadder's blue and yellow face starting straight at him. Now armed with a stick instead of an axe, he yelped and ran away from the dragon. He could almost feel it chasing him.

"Focus, Hiccup!" Gobber yelled. "You're not even trying!"

As Hiccup passed Fishlegs, the Nadder shifted its attention to the larger boy. Fishlegs let out a shriek of terror as the dragon extended its tail spikes, preparing to swing. Knowing how venomous the spikes were, Fishlegs put his shield up in a guarding position and ran, still screaming. The darts from the dragon's tail embedded themselves into his shield.

"I'm really starting to question this teaching method!" Fishlegs shouted.

"You've read the Dragon Manual, haven't you?" Jack asked from across the arena. "To attack it, you have to find its blind spot!"

"Exactly!" said Gobber. "Every dragon has a blind spot. Find it, hide in it, and strike!"

Lowering itself into the maze, the dragon came face to face with the Thorston twins, who each had a spear and a shield. The twins pushed as close together as possible, walking straight in front of the dragon's mouth. With the dragon's eyes out of sight, they were safe...

...until Ruffnut decided to speak. She had taken a deep breath through her nose. "Gross! Do you ever bathe?"

"If you don't like it, just get your own blind spot!" Tuffnut shot back, hitting Ruffnut with his shield.

"How about I give you one?" Ruffnut headbutted her brother, earning another headbutt back.

Tuffnut nearly spoke, but was interrupted by a squawk from the dragon. Both twins looked up at the Nadder. It had rotated its head and found them. They barely got away as the dragon let out a huge blast of magnesium fire.

"Blind spot, yes," said Gobber. "Deaf spot, not so much." He chuckled at his own joke.

Hiccup had made his way back over to Gobber for another question. "So, I was wondering, how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?"

"No one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale," said Gobber. "Now, shut up and get in there!" He emphasized this by pointing his one remaining index finger out into the arena.

Hiccup started to back up, saying, "I know. I know, but hypothetically‒."

"Hiccup, get down!"

The hushed voice coming from his right silenced him. Astrid was motioning him to come over to where she and Snotlout were hiding. As much as he didn't want to, Hiccup crouched down next to Snotlout up against the wall. Astrid peeked around the corner and immediately withdrew. Hiccup took this to mean the dragon was there. She took another peek and dove into a roll across to the other wall. Snotlout did the same, leaving Hiccup to follow suit. Hiccup took a peek around the corner and saw that the dragon had its head turned in another direction. He dove into his own roll, but his heavy shield pulled him back and clanked against the stone floor. The Nadder squawked and lurched towards him. Hiccup sprinted away just in time. Deciding Hiccup was too fast a target, the Nadder jumped over the wall and came face to face with Jack.

"Oh, hi!" said Jack, startled. "How's it going?" He took his hammer and prepared to run into the dragon's blind spot, but a quick blast from the dragon disarmed him. Realizing what the dragon was doing, he unhooked the shield from his back and jumped into the blind spot. He used his shield to hit the dragon in the face and ran away, hoping to find somewhere to hide while it was stunned. When the dragon recovered, it rounded the corner and found Astrid and Snotlout. Astrid prepared to throw her axe, but Snotlout blocked her with his shield.

"Watch out, babe," he said. "I'll take care of this." He tossed his mace at the dragon, but didn't take the time to aim. The mace hit the wall next to the dragon. The Nadder looked at him with a strange expression and squawked repeatedly. Snotlout was confused. Was the dragon ... _laughing_ at him? He turned towards Astrid, who was shaking her head in anger and disappointment.

"You _idiot!_ " she shouted.

"The sun was in my eyes, Astrid!" Snotlout tried to explain, but Astrid knew that was a complete lie. She turned around and ran down the corridor. Snotlout chased after her just in time to dodge a fire blast from the Nadder. "What do you want me to do?" Snotlout asked, frustrated. "Block out the sun? I can do that, but I don't have time right now!"

"I saw that, Snotlout!" Jack yelled. "You're unbelievable!"

Astrid looked back and saw that Snotlout was gone, but the Nadder was hot on her heels. She ran as fast as she could around the arena, but this only seemed to make the dragon hungrier. She could hear it knocking down walls behind her. Panic began to set in and she jumped up one of the walls as another one knocked it down like a domino. She jumped off to the other side, hoping to gain some distance as the wall came down, only to find herself flying into...

"HICCUP!"

Her warning shout was enough to get him to turn towards her, but he tripped as he backed up and fell flat on his back. Astrid landed right on top of him.

 _CLUNK!_

She felt the wind as the dragon soared right over her and crashed into a pile of walls that had been knocked down. Good news: the dragon was stunned. Bad news: Astrid herself was in a compromising position, prostrate _on top_ of Hiccup, with her axe embedded into his shield. That must have been the source of the clunking noise. She looked straight down at Hiccup and realized just how close their faces were. Somehow, their legs had gotten tangled up.

 _Oh, no,_ she thought. _Now the twins are gonna have a hoot._

"Ooh, love on the battlefield!" said Tuffnut.

 _Case in point!_

"She could do better," Ruffnut added.

 _Shut up!_

Astrid tried to untangle her legs from Hiccup's, making sure to use his face as leverage so the twins would stop teasing her. Ignoring every word Hiccup managed to sputter out, she freed herself and stood up. As soon as she was on her feet, the dragon had freed itself from its own predicament and was running towards her. Astrid gasped and picked up her axe, only to be met with more resistance. Hiccup seemed to be too dazed to let go of his shield, and the axe was stuck fast to it. She tugged harder, but to no avail. She resorted to stepping on Hiccup's face to yank the shield free from his arm. Stepping away from him, time seemed to slow as she swung the axe into the dragon's face. The shield protected the dragon from the blade, but shattered to pieces upon impact. The hit was much more powerful than Jack's shield bash and stopped the dragon in its tracks. No longer interested in eating any of the teens, the dragon walked away, almost sulking.

"Well done, Astrid!" said Gobber.

The adrenaline slowly died down in Astrid's body. Suddenly remembering how close she had been to Hiccup, she realized the twins would start to spread rumors unless she did something. She turned back to him and saw him curled up on the ground in a fetal position. Hoping she would get the chance to make it up to him in private later, she put on an angry face and yelled at him.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you?!"

He uncurled slightly and looked up at her, realizing she was talking to him.

She continued, "Our parents' war is about to become ours. Stop playing around and figure out which side you're on!" She lowered her axe head towards him to emphasize and turned away. By then, Gobber had locked the dragon back in its cage and opened the gate, so she turned and left the arena without another word.

Hiccup was sure Astrid hadn't meant anything by what she said, but hearing those words had deeply impacted him. Whose side was he really on? He surely didn't want to fight or kill dragons anymore, but he also didn't want to betray his family and friends. If only‒.

His thoughts were interrupted once again, this time by Snotlout. "Are you just gonna sit there, Useless?" he snapped. "We almost died there, and you didn't do anything!"

"Knock it off, pal!" Jack snapped back. "You should be thinking about what _you've_ been doing! Your attempts to woo Astrid cost you both your weapon and your victory this round!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Snotlout. "You're the one with a broken hammer! My mace is just in that mess of broken walls, somewhere."

"You're missing my point as badly as you missed that dragon's face, buddy!" said Jack. "What's more important to you? Is it getting girls, or is it defending your life so a girl can fall for you in the first place?"

Snotlout glared at Jack. "What're you saying, coz?"

"Don't try to put this on Hiccup," said Jack. "If you hadn't been trying to impress Astrid the whole time, you might have actually hit the dragon and won that! And while I'm at it, you were too focused on Astrid to realize how close the dragon was to incinerating you!"

"Your point?" Snotlout was getting impatient.

"I think I've made my point already!" said Jack. "This arena is no place for flirting! If you keep this up, you'll actually die!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" said Snotlout. He drew a sword from the weapon rack and approached Jack, who raised his shield.

"BOYS!" Gobber boomed. "Not here!" He approached Snotlout and took the sword right out of his hand. "Jack has a point, you know. If you don't put all your focus on the fight, you'll lose."

Jack wasn't satisfied, but he knew he couldn't do anything else. He glanced around the arena and realized Hiccup was gone. After glaring at Snotlout one last time, he left the arena and started walking toward the village, not even bothering to pick up the pieces of his broken hammer.

* * *

Hiccup slowly approached emerged from his hiding place, so far unseen. With a new shield in one hand and a fish in the other, he walked through the rocks into the open ... or he would have if he hadn't lodged his shield between two boulders. He tried to pull the shield out, but it wouldn't budge. He looked around to see if the dragon was close, but it was nowhere in sight. He crawled underneath the shield and emerged, still holding the fish outwards. The further he walked, the more of the cove he could see, but the dragon remained out of sight.

 _Where is he?_ he wondered to himself.

A low growl drew his attention to the left. Turning towards the sound, he gasped at the sight of the jet black Night Fury climbing down from a rock. The dragon approached him and sniffed from a few feet away, growling again.

Seeing his chance, he reached out as far as he could with the fish. The dragon's pupils dilated slightly as he walked towards the boy. It sniffed again and jumped back with a fierce growl, turning its eyes to slits once more. Hiccup hadn't expected this, but he suspected what the dragon was upset about. He reached for his dagger underneath his vest and quivered as the beast growled again. Tossing the knife to the side did nothing to change the dragon's behavior, so Hiccup kicked it into the lake. After watching the weapon sink into the lake, the dragon sat up and stared at Hiccup. Its pupils had dilated once again, and now looked like squares with soft corners, rather than black lines.

 _Okay, time for the next step,_ Hiccup thought. He held out the fish once again. The dragon took gentle steps towards him and opened its mouth, revealing something Hiccup had not been expecting. Where he had just seen a sharp set of white teeth, he saw red, toothless gums.

"Huh. Toothless." Hiccup was extremely confused. "I could have sworn you had-."

He was cut off by a strange sound he had never heard before. Before he could blink, the dragon's teeth snapped out of the gums and it grabbed the fish from him, chewing it only three times before swallowing. Hiccup let out a surprised yelp.

"... teeth," he finished, unable to fully grasp what he had just seen.

The dragon licked its lips and started walking towards Hiccup. It cocked its head to the side, like an animal begging for food.

"Uh, no! No, no, no, no! Wait!" Hiccup backed up against a rock and the dragon's face stopped within inches of his. "I don't have anymore!" he whispered.

The dragon gagged a few times and regurgitated the back half of the fish into Hiccup's lap. _Oh_ _, how gross,_ he thought. The dragon sat back and stared at him, as if expecting something. At first, Hiccup couldn't figure it out. If the dragon didn't want this half of the fish, what was it expecting him to do? He decided to stare back at the dragon for a few moments. The dragon soon gestured to the fish and back to Hiccup with its eyes.

"Wait, you want me to...?" There were several reasons for him not to eat the fish, but if this was the only way to earn the dragon's trust, he had to do it. He bit into the side of the raw fish and made an appreciative sound, as disgusting as it tasted. Holding what he had bitten off in the side of his mouth, he smiled at the dragon. The Night Fury made a swallowing gesture.

 _Oh, Thor,_ he thought. Ignoring the awful taste, he gulped it down. It was one of the worst things he had ever tasted, but he smiled at the dragon anyway. Studying the boy's expression, the dragon parted its lips and did its best to curl the corners of its mouth up into a toothless smile. Hiccup put the fish down and reached up towards the dragon with his hand. The teeth reappeared and the dragon let out a soft growl before flying across the lake.

 _Okay, time to try getting closer to it._

* * *

The noise from the sharpening wheel didn't bother Jack. In fact, he preferred it over hearing conversations from passing Vikings. He was currently sharpening a rapier, which he hoped to bring into the arena as a replacement for his hammer. The blast from the Nadder had effectively destroyed it.

"Working on your new fencing sword?"

Astrid's voice had startled Jack, but he didn't allow this to show. He stopped sharpening the blade and turned around to face her. "No," he replied. "This is for the arena. I don't intend to waste this on a fencing match with Snotlout."

"Why a rapier?" asked Astrid.

"This isn't made of the same steel that's in most of our weapons," said Jack. "It's made of a stronger, heavier metal with a higher melting point, so I had to balance it out."

"It's a long blade, too," said Astrid. "Are you sure you can use a back scabbard with that?"

Jack smirked. "Just you wait, Astrid," he said. "I've been designing this thing for a while now." The memory of her yelling at Hiccup crossed his mind. "Hey, by the way, you didn't mean what you said to Hiccup earlier, did you?"

"Not one word," said Astrid. "I've been looking for him so I can tell him that, but I can't find him anywhere. I checked the woods and sneaked into his house, and I ended up here."

"He's probably trying to befriend that dragon," said Jack.

Astrid realized he was right. There was no other explanation, and she had no idea where the dragon was. She tried not to let her worry seep into her voice as she said, "Why is he doing this?"

"Why shouldn't he?" asked Jack. "For the first time in history, we're on the verge of peace between dragons and Vikings."

Astrid creased her eyebrows at Jack. "Shame on you! You know it's dangerous!"

"My brother is not dangerous!" Jack retorted. "He would have killed us both the first time he saw us if he was."

"How do you know Hiccup isn't in any danger?" she asked. The anger in her voice was clear.

"If it makes you feel any better, I know where the dragon is," said Jack. "I'm done with the sword; I can go check on him."

"Then take me with you," said Astrid. "I don't want to be kept in the dark anymore!"

"That's not a good idea," said Jack. "The dragon knows Hiccup. You're a complete stranger. I'm sure there will come a time when you can meet the dragon, but that time is not now."

Astrid shook her head. "I don't think you understand," she said.

Jack put the sword in the scabbard and made for the door, looking Astrid in the eyes the whole way. "I understand completely," he said. "You'll see Hiccup tonight at Gobber's cookout. I'll promise you that."

* * *

The sun was just about to set by the time Jack reached the cove. Because he still didn't want the Night Fury to see him, he flattened himself on the forest floor and peered over the edge. He was greeted by the sight of a giant mess of lines scribbled in the dirt and the Night Fury sitting just outside it. Hiccup was sitting on a rock in the center. He got to his feet and started to walk out of the lines, and the dragon growled as he stepped on one of them. He stopped in his tracks and lifted his foot. The dragon stopped growling and smiled at him. Hiccup put his foot down on the line again several times; the dragon growled each time. He then stepped over the line, eliciting no such reaction from the dragon this time. Having to watch where he stepped, he didn't think to keep track of where he would end up. Jack watched as Hiccup finally exited the scribbles and stood just a foot or two away from the dragon.

 _Come on,_ Jack thought. _Give me a sign._

Hiccup stretched his hand out to the Night Fury. A low growl prompted him to withdraw immediately. The dragon seemed fine once he had backed off. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup turned his head away and closed his eyes. He slowly stretched his hand out towards the dragon's face. "It's okay," he whispered. "I'm not gonna hurt you, Toothless." Though he couldn't see, the dragon's eyes widened. When his hand was just an inch from the dragon's face, it closed its eyes and pressed its nose against Hiccup's palm. Hiccup's eyes snapped open and he looked up. When Toothless pulled back, he let out what sounded like a sneeze and ran off to the other side of the cove.

As Hiccup left the cove a few minutes later, Jack met up with him. Before he could say anything, Hiccup asked, "Did you follow me? How long have you been here?"

Jack smiled and let out a chuckle. "Not very long," he said. "Just long enough to see what I've been waiting for since I arrived at Berk nine years ago."

* * *

 **Yeah, it's been a while. This chapter took a long time to finish. I'm back into the swing of things. I wanted to make a series out of this, but I don't think that's going to happen. I'm thinking that maybe I'll finish this and not make it into a series. When I decided to put this on FanFiction, I had two options: copy and paste the crappy chapters I'd already written over the years, or rewrite the whole thing. I made the mistake of deciding to rewrite the whole thing. I intend to finish this, but my primary focus will be on my modern AU and my Legend of Zelda crossover from then on. After that, I don't think I'll write more than one or two stories at a time. See you guys in the next chapter! Please check out my crossover story!**


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